


Grist

by Auxityne



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Multi, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:00:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 27
Words: 316,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28650927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auxityne/pseuds/Auxityne
Summary: In the age of Dust, Remnant's fallen harvesters have done all they can to feed their machine with the unwilling and the unaware, all to achieve their twisted vision of peace. When another child of the war before starts asking questions - and making uncomfortable friends - how far will they go to ensure the planet's secrets remain buried?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	1. Help Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you that have read my previous stab at a RWBY tale, Keeper, you will find a few familiar faces in what follows. This new attempt at the idea incorporates much of what I meant for Keeper to be, although admittedly I plotted that story out as I was writing it – a trap I feel like RWBY's own writers have fallen into at times. It also incorporates plans and characters I built for Seeker, Keeper's sequel and the second of three stories I wanted to write before RWBY faded from my interest and I moved on to other things. Grist is therefore a total rebuild of Keeper, and in some ways a re-tooling of RWBY itself. More on that in a minute.
> 
> So what drew me back here?
> 
> Something about RWBY's character designs really sticks. There are beautiful, vibrant characters in this tale that are really appealing, at least to me, though for the moment I will spare you any lists of my personal favorites — that's not the point. I want to give those cool designs stuff to do. More depth than they might have gotten in the show (and I am thinking of a particular villain here). In addition, the story is a challenge to myself from a consistency and planning standpoint.
> 
> Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your own tastes?) this means changes. In the process of planning this story, I've had to cut characters and concepts out. Many of those characters you probably liked. I know for certain that at least two that I had to ditch are really going to piss most of you off, but I'm fine with it — because the characters I kept will have increased purpose. If I do my job properly, we will end up with a story that will be much better framed and deployed than Keeper was, with a meaningful plot and genuine stakes – and perhaps even a larger story overall than the three-part series I originally envisioned.
> 
> I admit that this type of story will not be for everyone. Not every fan of the show wants to read a tweaking of it, even if they agree with the concept, because a lot of people have their favorite characters (as I do!) and their absence here will be off-putting. Don't feel bad! I have my own favorites too, people I just couldn't bear to leave out, but I had to find roles for them. I refused to let myself keep a character just because they look cool. A lot of them had to fall by the wayside in view of this requirement. In some cases I built new characters to take their places. In others I left their roles empty. Such is the price of storytelling.
> 
> I also want you to know up front that there are characters and concepts in this version of Remnant that work slightly (or incredibly) different, but you will not feel lost. You will still see Dust, and Grimm, and Aura, and Semblances. The Four Kingdoms are still standing. Ruby will still have her silver eyes. I do not view this as a complete ground-up rebuild; instead, Grist is a look into what I think Remnant might have been with a little more pre-planning, even if that planning is carried out by a lackluster author. Know that the plot of Keeper and the plot of Grist, while maintaining many key points, is not the same. Don't think because you read the first (if you did, thanks) that you'll have a leg up on the story here. The endings, especially, are not even in the same solar system.
> 
> That's enough from me, I think. I'll let you decide whether or not you want to proceed. For those that read on, thank you. For those that don't, thank you anyway.

It had been literal ages since he felt the need to be impatient about anything, but the pace at which the old man across the counter from him pecked out words on his keyboard did wonders to reintroduce the concept.

"Easy, now," that old man said lowly, a wry smile on his face. "Don't want to get too antsy and attract the beasts, do you? I'm almost done."

After a moment, his clean-shaven customer matched the smirk. "I'm just ready to get on with it. You know, before I change my mind." He took a peek at the makings of the item for which he waited. "Wow. Remind me never to have my picture taken ever again."

The old man cracked another smile, though his attention remained focused on the task at hand. "Ah, come on, you don't look that bad."

"Oh, so your shoddy camera work is to blame."

"Heh." Now he looked up at his customer. "Spell it for me again? Need to get it right the first time."

The young man across the counter adjusted his camouflage boonie as he answered. "Opher Riese. O-p-h-e-r... R-i-e-s-e."

"That is the damnedest fake name I ever heard, son. I applaud you." The old man placed something into a complicated machine to his left, tapped four buttons on it, then clasped his hands and looked up while the device began to work. "All righty. Should be about three minutes. Shall we go ahead and settle the transaction?"

He plucked the duffel bag off the floor by his feet and opened one of its numerous pockets. "If you insist. I don't have any coinage on me, but... I do have this." From that pocket he drew a single thin ingot of gold and set it on the counter. "What do you think?"

"If that's real, I think you just became my favorite customer." To check, he used a steel file to draw a scratch across the ingot, then dropped a few beads of a clear liquid from a small bottle on the gouge. The only reaction to occur came from the person testing the metal. "Hot damn!" he exclaimed, clapping with glee.

Opher, arms folded, smiled as the old man dried off his gold and put it away in a nearby wall safe. "Do I get a framed picture on the wall, then? 'My Favorite Customer' across the bottom and everything. Make it _really_ fancy script." He looked over as the other machine emitted a pleasant chime.

"She's done." From an out-of-view slot in the device, the old man produced and handed over what Opher had just bought: a freshly forged Atlesian passport chip, something which could also serve as his ID for most purposes. "This bad boy should fool just about any system in the city. If you can find a way around the wall without being arrested or shot, that is."

"Knowing my luck I'll manage to get arrested _and_ shot. Thanks." A pleased Opher waved the passport once, put it into his duffel bag, and walked out of the old man's establishment. To call this place a village would be beyond generous; he counted about eight buildings in total, two of which were taverns, and four more of which were empty private residences. A few others were out and about this cloudy afternoon. A remarkably scaly-looking girl with green skin and a black mohawk walked past him as he began to move, but most of Opher's attention was on a couple arguing some distance away on the dirt street. The woman had brilliant red hair.

And seeing it made his stomach drop. "Damn. I was having a good day," he muttered. His next words were yelled. "Hey! Calm down before you get everyone killed!"

"Sorry!" was the man's sheepish reply. Their war of words seemed to die off afterward.

"Thank you. Sheesh." His good deed for the day done, Opher turned his back on them and made for the dense forest that surrounded him. Which way he was going at the moment didn't matter; he'd be able to ascertain his true location as soon as he got a little more privacy. What he wanted now was sweet, sweet distance.

The forest had it in droves. Opher found himself in the embrace of a truly ancient grove of birch trees whose branches spread out above him like a leafy wall, protecting all underneath from the sky. Birds filled those branches, and the air, with their cacophonous songs. After a few minutes of walking, he heard a few gunshots join the symphony, which gave way to a guttural roar, a series of screams, then silence. The birds abruptly lost their will to sing. "There goes another one," he muttered to himself. Now seemed like a good chance to check his compass; to his relief, north was behind him as he walked. The air around him was dead calm; for a man used to snow and tundra, the environment made him feel like eyes were everywhere. Every rustle caught his attention, only for that focus to be replaced with annoyance when nothing, invariably, proved to be around. Half an hour of this cycle had Opher fed up. "Why do I feel like a child again?" he finally snapped at himself. He ignored a subsequent rustle of leaves and continued forward.

Except this time there _was_ movement. Quick, hard to discern against the shadows and verdant backdrop, but movement all the same. Opher dropped his bag to take a longer look around. "I saw you, you know," he called into the forest while adjusting the long sleeves of his blue shirt.

At length, a heavily accented voice replied. "Well, fuck." Out stepped the green-skinned girl from earlier, a sword a piece in her clenched hands. "To be fair, though, love, I ain't sure exactly how nervous I oughta be about someone who carries gold around when they ain't even armed."

"Ohhhh," Opher breathed, "I'm being robbed." Thoroughly unimpressed with his potential adversary's weapons, his attention went to other things about her person – namely the enormous alarm clock attached to her right hip. "Narcoleptic?" he asked while pointing it out, a coy grin on his face.

"Wh-" The girl eyed him disparagingly for a long moment. "Is… is that an insult?"

Opher's face went completely blank. "Yes," he replied, hoping to move things along so he could get on with his actual plan for the afternoon. "Yes it is. I just said horrible things about your mother."

The robber didn't buy it – although this conclusion took her a good second or two to reach. She approached on confident strides. "Funny boy, ain'tcha. Tell ya what, joker, you give me your bag there and you can be on your way. I'm feelin' right charitable at the moment."

"Ah, see, I would do that except this is my shit and you can't have it." Opher could feel the fight coming and cracked his knuckles in anticipation. A quick glance down at a few incomprehensible symbols, seared in black onto the back of his left hand and continuing up underneath his long sleeve, made him smirk. He likely wouldn't require the knowledge they represented. "You can try to _take_ it, if you feel clever."

She cracked a grin at him, her mouth full of sharp metal and screws that gleamed in the dappled sunlight. "Issat so?"

It was after her question when Opher learned she had friends; two men stepped out into view from the undergrowth behind her. One was a blonde with a war hammer. The other had black hair and some type of machete that almost resembled a giant meat cleaver. In response to their arrival, Opher assumed a subtle martial stance with his right side pointed forward and right hand against his chest. "If we're gonna dance, can I least have your name?"

"Why not, love?" She put one of her swords under an arm in order to fiddle with the large minute hand of the clock on her hip. "I'm Jade Tock. And these..." She tapped the button on top of the clock, took up her sword again, and dropped into a fighting stance of her own as a yellowish flicker briefly encompassed her form. "...are the last sixty seconds of your life."

Tock charged down the distance between them in four or so seconds with a wide right-handed slash as her opener. Opher ducked right and back just in time for the arriving swing of her associate's war hammer to brush over the top of his head. While twirling on his heel to take the free shot at him, Opher found his machete-wielding friend, who drove a slash at his stomach. He got out of the way just as Tock tried to stab him in the back; her cutlass and his cleaver clashed with an awful sound and Opher withdrew to politely wait as the three of them tried to get untangled. Tock, the first to regain her bearings, chose to try and overwhelm him with her blades. Slash after slash flew at Opher's head, forcing him backward until she aimed a surprise roundhouse kick at his stomach and caught him square. Stunned, Opher looked up again to find Tock ducked in order for her associates to strike. He caught the cleaver's blade in one hand and stopped the war hammer's face with his closed right fist.

Halting both strikes left him wide open, however. Tock used the chance to drive both of her swords into Opher's chest. "Whew!" she snapped through a relieved smirk. Her clock started to ring as the colored field around her body came and went once more. She left her swords stuck in him to turn it off. "Dunno why I even bothered with this. He never even tried to hit me. Ah, well, safety first." While her associates stepped back to watch him stagger, Tock stayed close and kept his head up to watch the life leave his face. "Ah, I love this part the best. Watching all the lights go out. Never gets old." When he slumped forward against her, she took it as her cue to extract her swords. "Of course the new girl ran off on us. Check his bag. We're done here."

The blonde man couldn't resist a quip. "You sure know how to pick 'em, boss!"

"Fuck you, Greenwood. I chose your sorry ass, didn't I?" When she moved to yank her blades out of Opher's chest, however, they wouldn't budge an inch. His hands were on the gold guards, pulling them toward him as she tried to tug the opposite way.

"And I love _this_ part the best. So, what do you do when you can't kill whoever you're fighting in sixty seconds?" he asked lowly. His head remained down, face hidden by the wide brim of his hat.

"What the… what the hell?!" Tock drove her boot into his stomach for extra leverage, but no amount of strain could get her swords free.

"Uh huh. Keep pulling. I'm sure it'll work eventually." With a subtle snap of the fingers on his left hand, both of her associates were enveloped by azure flames as they sprinted back to assist and fell, screaming, until that fire snuffed out their lives. A panicked Tock headbutted his skull in desperation but suffered the worst for her effort, so stunned by the metallic-sounding impact that she released her blades and stumbled backwards.

Opher drew her swords from his flesh at last and looked up with utter amusement in his smile. "No, seriously," he continued while twirling the blades in his hands. "What do you do? Do you do the clock thing again and say ' _these_ are the last sixty seconds of your life, I promise'? Must be pretty awkward." While there were significant rips in his shirt, the pale skin underneath was completely unblemished.

"I see your Semblance is like mine! Huh. Imagine that," Tock laughed nervously. "How about a new deal? My swords for your bag and we'll both b-be on our way?" She backed into a tree trunk, hands up, completely unsure how she could deescalate the situation after trying to stab him to death. "No hard feelings, eh? Wouldn't want the Grimm to catch onto us? Right?" The unmoved expression on his face as he drew nearer only intensified her own horror. "L-love, let's be reasonable here!"

"'Let's be reasonable', she says, immediately after being hilt-deep in my rib cage." Tock chose to flee a second later; to stop her, Opher fired one of the swords toward her legs. It punched through the remainder of her drained Aura, buried itself in her left thigh, and sent her tumbling to the grassy ground. "Hey, hold on. I'm still considering your new deal." Words were beyond Tock now. She struggled to pull the blade from her leg, but it had struck bone and was lodged fast. A mottled trail of crimson spread out under her as she tried to crawl away. Opher pursued on leisurely strides until she stopped trying to escape and stared up at him helplessly.

That submission earned her a little grin. "You know what? I accept your offer. _Here's your other sword back._ " He released the remaining blade in his hand and kicked it straight into her chest. He turned to retrieve his bag as she gurgled and writhed toward her imminent expiration behind him.

The only sympathy he displayed went toward his outfit. "I _just_ bought this damn shirt." He flicked it off over his head with a few more grumbles before the search for a new one with long sleeves began. The sleeve of symbols that saturated his left arm, from wrist to shoulder, got a more furtive glance this time. "So much for not needing this shit. Damn. I'm rustier than I thought."

By the time he put a new shirt on, a few juvenile Boarbatusks had arrived to investigate Tock's anguish. "I'll get to you in a minute," he told them, although their number ignored him completely and seemed more interested in Tock's corpse. After a bit, the beasts started rummaging aimlessly in the forest undergrowth under the trees nearby. As their grunts and snorts mixed with the returning birdsong above him, Opher grabbed a bottle of water and a small blue Dust crystal. The latter he crushed in his hand to make a chunky powder; the former he opened while swallowing that powder so he could chase the mineral with its contents. A few uncomfortable seconds passed as the concoction traveled toward his stomach. Sufficiently prepared, he walked lazily over to the little Grimm and started to tip them over onto their backs with the sole of his sneaker. They emitted clipped oinks of protest while falling over, but the actual sight of him drew no particular reaction. Every Boarbatusk that ended up on its back received a flicked hand motion and subsequent ice spike to the throat. "One, two, three, four… and five," he mumbled, counting them off until all were dispatched this way.

Time to move again, he decided – upward, not onward. After a cursory search for Tock's missing associate, which turned up empty, Opher chose to discharge what little wind Dust he had left on internal reserve and rocketed into the sky for a fuller picture of his surroundings. To his right glittered the large sea nestled between the continent of Sanus and the unnamed land to its north. From this height, the nearby island of Patch was a verdant smear across the blue water. Directly ahead was a large plain, through which a river snaked toward the sea. Where the river and the ocean would have met sat a huge urban area, bound by a jagged wall on three sides – his destination. He reckoned the city of Vale stood about an hour's worth of Dust-assisted sprinting away as he began to plummet toward the ground. The fact that he had no more wind Dust to cushion his fall meant nothing; Opher took the impact back-first, splayed out on the forest floor, hitting so hard that he frightened away the birds in the trees above him. His Aura absorbed the contact entirely. "How am I gonna get in without raising hell?" he asked himself as he sat up. Since the coastal side of Vale was the only part that lacked a wall, it seemed like his best option for entry. He snatched up his bag and set off for the coast.

Unbeknownst to Opher _or_ Tock was the fact that the latter's "new girl" hadn't run off at all. Her terror, rising since the opening moves of the fight and reaching its crescendo as he killed her would-be boss, was the reason the Boarbatusks went poking around in the undergrowth in the first place. Tucked behind a tree, she watched him stroll past the corpses and out of sight before vacating the area herself.

* * *

Opher's plan for an amphibious invasion encountered complications when he reached the shoreline. Vale now stood two miles, maybe less, to his left side, but every boat he thought about boarding to slip in through the port was either too small to let him blend in unnoticed or belonged to Vale's Navy, where his presence would be unwelcome to say the least. Bag in hand, he strolled idly toward the city wall and considered his options. The sight of a half-submerged, rusty old airship wreck on the beach ahead made him come to a stop. "Huh… hold on." He cast his eyes skyward to determine the thickness of airship traffic. While plenty of large passenger liners were out and about, they were all escorted by military craft that wouldn't be pleased to see some random idiot clamped to the roof of whatever they were protecting. And even if he could manage to find one to use, getting off of it in an open-air, well-guarded airship terminal would be a tremendous challenge if he wanted to get in quietly.

With a frown, Opher set down his bag and began to prepare for his original plan: becoming a submersible. To this end he ingested two small Dust crystals – wind and gravity, the latter being his first of that type in some time – and waited for their power to soak in. While that process occurred, he plotted his first moves after a successful infiltration. He'd need some kind of work. A place to occupy. "What kind of job do you think I'm suited for these days, Carmine?" he asked the gentle waves. "It's been a little while since I've been in the labor market." He knew what she'd say – _any damn thing you wanted, fool_. The mental picture of her derisive smirk made him smile in kind. "Your stupid face is never gonna go away."

For better or worse. He still couldn't tell which, even after all these years.

The time had come. Opher scuttled along across the sand in search of terrain that would at least hide his entrance into the water. The featureless coast denied him for ten minutes until he had to settle for a jagged outcrop of granite. Glued to its side, he waited for the passage of a small, fast boat headed toward Patch, then grabbed his bag and slipped into the water's embrace. Neither he nor his luggage actually got wet thanks to a continuous low-level discharge of the wind Dust he'd eaten earlier. The effect of the gravity Dust served to help him maintain traction as he skipped carefully along the seabed. Once he was in deeper water and harder to see from the air, he made for the continental shelf and looked up for a boat to use. Once he found one cruising in the desired direction, he shed some of his depth and clung to the bottom of its hull. His gamble paid off after about ten minutes when the seabed below him turned into flat concrete. Down he sunk again, eyes cast toward the surface as he searched for a larger ship to disguise his emergence from the water. A nearby docked freighter seemed like his best bet, so Opher propelled himself over to it with precise jets of air directed toward his rear. Tucked safely between the ship and its wharf, he ventured to the surface to take a peek around. No crew seemed to be present on either the ship or the dock, at least from his limited angle of view, but he chose to swim back under the vessel and board it from the other side instead of hopping onto the wharf directly. He skittered up the side of its red and black hull like an insect and emerged onto its deck, which he found empty of crew. In short order, he walked around the superstructure, found a gangplank leading from the ship to the dock, and walked off as if he was supposed to be there. Since he was dry, nobody in the nearby fish market paid him much attention beyond a glance.

It had worked. A relieved Opher decided to vacate the area before anyone's interest fell on him. A minute of travel became two, then three, then five, and soon he was about to depart the port district entirely. "That went well," he mumbled with a look over his shoulder. While he left one obstacle behind, another presented itself ahead of him: automated scanners that protected the residential district beyond from any stowaways that might have been aboard the ships in the harbor. This would be the first test of his false passport chip. Despite knowing that if it failed, it would only reach the level of minor inconvenience, Opher still found a sliver of nervousness in his heart as he stepped underneath the gleaming silver arch.

A thoughtful-sounding beep rang out as he passed below. There was a green light next, then a pleasant ding. It had worked like a charm.

Sufficiently emboldened, he strode into the residential district. It was comprised of gray stone buildings, variably tall, adorned with as many six-pane sash windows as their architects could shove into them. Foot traffic here increased significantly. Keen to get a feel for the city since it had been so long since he last lived in any sort of large settlement, Opher paid what attention he could to conversations as he walked. The talk proved small and vapid, without exception, but the faces of the speakers were even worse – _everyone_ he saw wore a version of the same blank-faced, absent smile. The more he saw it, the uneasier he began to feel. "I think I missed something," he whispered to himself. After an hour, residences became businesses, big and small, of all architectural descriptions. He could pick out Atlesian companies from a long way thanks to their steel and glass constructions. Most of these were related to Dust, either the importation of the mineral for industrial use or the sale of smaller quantities directly to the public. The crowd got even thicker here than before; several people clipped Opher as he made his way down the crowded sidewalk.

"Sorry!"

Every single time. Immediate apology, immediate smile, immediate departure from the scene before Opher could really even acknowledge the contact. Bewildered by the way this sequence repeated ceaselessly without fail, he decided to take a detour into a little park just to get out of the way of the tide. It kept on going as he watched from the safety of a wooden bench. People bumped into each other. Instant smile, apology, and departure. Somehow, the reflexive quality of the exchanges reminded him of combat training; along with the idle chatter he still heard, every word spoken lacked the vibrancy he was used to from months of conversation in far-flung villages.

And then… "Fuck!"

Opher searched for the source of the outburst among the horde and finally detected the presence of a wobbly stack of metallic boxes in a pair of muscular dark-skinned arms, suspended above a gaudy green-and-white checkered ankle skirt and black sandals. "Please _move_ ," she added later, clearly frustrated. It seemed to work; her annoyance drove a wedge in the crowd which let her walk a little faster. Curious, Opher rose from his seat and fell in loosely behind her, where he got a better look at her messy, waist-length indigo hair, tugged back into a ponytail. Her outfit was topped off by a red tank with thin shoulder straps. She only realized someone was in pursuit after Opher followed her around a right-hand corner, off the main street, and into a slightly quieter part of the district. "Uh, hello?" she said over her left shoulder. "I see you back there."

Her visage punted Opher's heart straight into his throat. This swarthy young woman was the spitting image of his mother, from her button nose and bluish hair to her bright, round ochre-colored eyes and powerful build – although notably much shorter, as eye-level for this woman was probably about shoulder height for him. "You look like you could use some help," he replied.

She shrugged up at him and turned to proceed away. "I'm fine. You're already carrying a bag as it is."

He wouldn't let her get far; Opher took her appearance as some kind of positive sign about his willingness to re-enter society at last, like familial approval from beyond the grave. "Oh no, if only I had more than one hand with which to hold objects."

Again she turned to squint at him, as if annoyed, but a smirk appeared on her face instead. "Okay, smart ass, grab a few off the top and follow me." After Opher obeyed her, taking three off the stack to rest them on his right shoulder, they continued forth side by side. "Can't say I've seen your face before. Atlesian?"

Opher blinked at her directness, but ran with the assumption since he'd need to build that lie anyway. "I am new, yes… and how could you tell?"

"Because you have about as much skin color as the exterior of my shop." The fat shadow of a landing airship passed over them, providing brief respite from the potent late summer sun. "I guess I should welcome you to Vale. We get pale bastards here all the time, snowbirds that migrate during the winter and never go home. You're a little bit early if that's the case."

Her assessment made Opher snicker a little; it seemed a few things hadn't changed during his self-imposed exile. "I'm not rich enough to switch Kingdoms for half the year." The crowd got thinner the longer they traveled. "Since you did it to me, your complexion says you're from Vacuo."

"Kinda. My mom is. I guess I got it from her. My dad's side of the family is Mistralian, though." The woman came to a halt in front of a small storefront, painted white, with two rectangular windows. One of these bore a placard that stated "Official Distribution Partner of the Schnee Dust Company", right next to a plain paper sign which proclaimed "Help Wanted" in scrawled black marker. Above both stood a large blue marquee with "Diamond Dust" emblazoned across it. "We're here," she stated, setting her load on the sidewalk. "Lemme unlock the door."

"Oh, so this is Dust," Opher noted. "No wonder these things are made of metal." He followed her into the little store once its door was open. While the place wasn't much more than Dust-laden shelves – bookcase style constructions that lined both of the side walls plus eight freestanding devices in two rows on the floor – and a glass display at the back which also doubled as the register, it was well-kept and highly organized. Duly impressed with the shop's cleanliness, he made sure to scrub his feet on the doormat before his shoes contacted the pristine sky blue carpet. "Where to?"

She waddled awkwardly past him on her way to the register. "Set 'em on the counter back here. And, uh, thanks for the help. My name's Indigo."

"I'm Opher." As he set the cases down next to hers, she busted out laughing and turned away. "Yes, gods, it sounds like gopher. I know where this conversation is going. It's happened to me six damn times in the past two weeks."

"I just – oh my goodness, _Opher_? Your parents must have hated you." The way he walked around the counter after hearing this told Indigo that her quip had struck the wrong nerve. The glaze in his green eyes proved even worse. Her face softened apologetically. "Oh. Fuck me, why did I say that… I'm sorry. I was kidding, I swear."

"Ah, it's fine. Been forever since they died anyway." Opher shed his hat and rubbed back his short, mousy brown hair. "Can I ask you something?"

Indigo shrugged and popped open one of the steel cases to confirm its contents. "Shoot."

He cast a long look at the passersby beyond the windows before his eyes went back to her. "Is it just me or does nobody _frown_ here? I know I'm new, but, uh, it's a little weird."

She eyed him a little more closely now and crossed her arms. That he was willing to question this openly spoke volumes; Indigo found herself quite interested. "Isn't it? It's even worse if you've ever lived outside a Kingdom for any length of time. The way things work here... it's... never mind." Every second she spent watching him process this brought her closer to a realization: his face resembled the one she saw in the mirror, weighed down more by fatigue and regret every day. "You look like you've had it rough. I mean... you can't be any older than I am but you look twice as worn out. What gives? If you don't mind my asking. It's probably none of my business."

"No, it's okay." Opher plopped his hat back on and donned a sad smile. His curiosity about her knowledge of life beyond city walls could wait for now. "My old job wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, I guess."

"I know exactly how you fuckin' feel, man. Are you..." Indigo glanced away and rubbed the back of her neck. "...looking for new work?"

"Wait, here?" She nodded at him. When comparing her demeanor to the muted masses outside, there was no option in Opher's mind; besides, how could he say no to that face? He decided to seize the chance. "Well, yeah. Is there an interview process?"

"Sure. It starts right now. You got some ID?" Indigo took Opher's forged Atlesian passport when he handed it over and stuck it into a slot on the register. "Damn, you ain't kidding about being new. Your entry scan was just an _hour_ ago?"

"Fresh off the boat, so to speak." Opher could watch her read his info through the translucent holographic screen; her expression would be the first indication of anything amiss, but it never departed from the lidded ingestion of the details in front of her.

"Twenty-five years old…" She tilted her head to the side to get a better look at him. "Yeah. Heh, I got you beat by two years. Kingdom of Atlas, okay, yeah, definitely. How do you say your last name?"

"Oh, ah," Opher rubbed his chin for a moment as he searched for a decent analogue to the sounds. "Rye, like the grain, and see. Rye-see."

"Easy enough." Indigo had read all she wanted and handed back his passport chip. "I see you used to work for the SDC. What did you do in the great white north?"

Time for the rubber to hit the road. Opher had carefully chosen a lie upon which to build his latest new life, something plausible for his old stomping ground but with enough mystique to justify any necessary evasiveness. "Ever heard of the 'independent contractors' they use to escort exploratory missions? I was kind of a hybrid between bodyguard and surveyor."

"No shit?!" Indigo exclaimed, slamming her hands on the counter. There were exactly as many stars in her eyes as Opher wanted. "Why the hell did you leave that gig? Or are you still under NDA?"

He couldn't help but smirk at her reaction. "A little bit, but… like I said, change of scenery." Eye contact grew difficult, but it had less to do with his untruths than it did the heavy memories of people long gone. "Too much stuff happened. I've been seeing too many faces lately."

That sealed the deal; Indigo had finally discovered one more kindred spirit in a Kingdom full of the oblivious. "When can you start?" she asked, hands on her hips.

At first, Opher didn't quite know how to react. He pointed at himself and blinked. "Wait. Really?"

"Yeah, really." Indigo rolled her eyes a moment later. "Uh… you're kind of the first person to apply since I put the notice out. A month ago. So." She noticed the markings on his left hand as he dropped his arm. "Oh, you got ink?"

"Huh? Oh, this. Yeah, full sleeve of—" His gaze became slightly distant. "Sentimental stuff. Is that a problem?"

"Nah, I have a few myself." She folded her arms with a wry smile, though it faded quickly. "Now, answer me. When can you start? I need the help, like, fucking yesterday."

Opher hung his bag over his shoulder and frowned a bit. "If I can find somewhere to stay, I'll be in whenever you open tomorrow morning. I'd rather be busy so I don't have to think too much."

Indigo couldn't believe how much he sounded like she did. She pointed toward the right side of the shop to issue directions. "Leave here and turn right. Look for a four-story red brick building two blocks down across the street with bay windows in the front. Used to be an office or something, but they remodeled it into a little inn. Pretty cheap. I've met the owner a few times, he's nice enough. Mention my name and you'll get the royal treatment."

The usual half-smirk returned to Opher's face as she concluded. "Oho, is that right? How far does your influence spread, Miss Indigo?"

"Call me that again and I'll feed you my fist," she warned him, although the playful glimmer in her eyes indicated anything but imminent violence. "And if you must know, my best friend owns the pub next door. He gets a lot of business from her. I'll see your pale ass at 8:30 AM. Sharp."

"Very well." Before Opher left, however, he found himself with one final question. "If I may, what exactly will I be _doing_ around here?"

Indigo patted one of the Dust cases with her left hand. "Not around here, at least not at first. You're gonna be my errand boy for deliveries to Beacon Academy. The new year is about to start and I finally got added to the designated merchants list. _You_ are gonna help me stay on it." She got a nod from her new employee, after which, to her surprise, he turned to leave. "You're not gonna ask me what your pay is?"

"Eh, I don't care," he replied with a shrug. "Some money is better than no money."

Indigo found herself grinning yet again. "Shit, new guy, I like you already."

* * *

The amber light of the evening sun ranged itself across the polished tile floor of Glynda Goodwitch's office in the main tower at Beacon Academy. The woman herself, seated behind her semi-circular mahogany desk, had almost wrapped up examination of the files of the incoming freshman class. A copious amount of notes were already on her Scroll as she tried to sort the arrivals into appropriate sets of four.

Glynda tapped the screen of her device to call up a large projection of the next dossier. This one concerned a girl named Ruby Rose. Her presence in the class seemed to be a mistake — the admission age for top-level Academy students was sixteen, not fifteen — but a glance over her file indicated why she had been skipped ahead. _Immediate promotion authorized under terms of Section D_ , said a handwritten note in the margin. That writing belonged to Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon and Glynda's immediate superior. "As if we don't steal them early enough," she muttered to herself. She read on to see why Ruby qualified and discovered her rather unfortunate family history; here was the daughter of two Hunters, which meant instant placement on the Academy track, and her mother had already been lost to the Grimm. Below that sad news was transcripts of her time at Signal, where the tall blonde was regaled by notes about Ruby's tremendous technical skill. "She built her own weapon?" Not only hers, but another girl's too, someone named Yang whose file she hadn't seen yet. Glynda studied the included picture. Ruby's wide smile and bright silver eyes made her heart sink. With a frown, she signed off on the file and proceeded to the next one.

The name at the top of the next file defied belief, even after she gawked at it twice. Unlike Ruby's pleasant photo, the image of Weiss Schnee was every bit as chilly as her surname and Atlesian heritage would suggest. Her icy blue eyes were iron. No smile bent her lips. She detected a vaguely bitter quality in the pallid girl's expression. Further investigation brought more surprises. Here was a girl from arguably Remnant's most powerful Kingdom, rich almost beyond measure, with two living parents and all her siblings present and accounted for; how in the world did she end up in the Academy track? Glynda scanned her private education transcripts for her Academy qualifications and clues to this mystery. She found the former in droves, but the latter proved impossible to uncover. Like Ruby's, Weiss' dossier also featured a comment from the man in charge. _Voluntary application. Approved under terms of Section K._ "I cannot believe this," she grumbled. Voluntary? Why would a Schnee give herself up to this kind of life? She eyed Weiss' photo again. No amount of searching her face could bring Glynda any closer to answers. Surely her family knew the truth. Surely they would have tried to stop her.

Perhaps the fact they didn't was a sign in itself. A dour Glynda signed off on Weiss' file and proceeded to the next, where the cocky grin of a lilac-eyed blonde girl waited. Yang Xiao Long was her name; she recalled seeing a portion of it before, but couldn't remember where until a moment's thought had been spent. Her father was a teacher at Signal Academy, a Beacon feeder school on the island of Patch. How much _he_ knew about the Academies was a thought she discarded quickly. Yang turned out to be the aforementioned sister in Ruby Rose's file; Glynda could scarcely believe it given how different the two girls looked. Her intuition was right, as it turned out that the peppy-looking blonde wasn't Ruby's sister, but her half-sister, related through their father. Another handwritten note, this one from Signal Academy's Headmistress, told Glynda that Yang had no idea about her actual parentage. She confirmed this with other paperwork from Signal which had Yang list Summer Rose, Ruby's mother, as her own.

"What happened to her mother, then?" Glynda asked herself. Death during childbirth, perhaps? No wonder Ruby had been promoted a year early; such a secret would likely get the whole family exiled if it got out. Why it hadn't already was something she attributed to the somewhat loose way things were run on Patch, at least compared to Kingdoms proper. While Ruby was a little below the usual admission age, Yang seemed to be a year too late for reasons not immediately evident in her transcripts. Not that her education really mattered for Beacon's purposes. Her file earned a signature and was set aside. She made a deal with herself — one more file and she could retire for the day. On her translucent screen appeared the image of a black-haired Faunus with ebony cat ears, surrounded by her apparent mother and father. She read on about Blake Belladonna and encountered a nightmare; the language in her application was that of well-meaning parents who wanted the finest foreign education for their only daughter, since Menagerie lacked an Academy of its own. That they chose Beacon was no surprise to Glynda; Ozpin had built up its image over his tenure to a point where it towered above the other three schools. The picture of Blake with her parents was like a boot to Glynda's stomach, so fierce that she rose from her chair and walked away to gaze out one of the grand windows. "I can't sign this," she muttered to herself, glasses off as she rubbed at her tired green eyes. "Not another one."

Her signatures meant nothing, of course. Ozpin held final say on every application to the Academy. Glynda's opinion mattered only toward determining the formation of freshman teams, four-person squads that usually broke up in the sophomore year — sometimes by choice, other times by necessity as the endless hordes of beasts picked off the weak or overly heroic children. From this height she could barely pick out the coffee-and-black clad form of one particular survivor whose team no longer existed. Glynda's eyes darted back toward her screen. "I can't…" Yet she drifted toward her desk and sat down again. "Why did I take this job?"

She knew why; despite her immense strength, coming back to her alma mater was the only other option besides death out in the wilds — a purely calculated move on her part. Better to be alive than dissolved in some Grimm's abyssal innards. Up went her stylus, to sign off on Blake's file, just as it had almost four dozen previous times today.

Even as she wrote, however, Glynda wondered how many more children like Blake she could stomach throwing into the mill.


	2. Listed

Every aspect of the girl's behavior said _I've never been on an airship before_. She couldn't help herself, dashing to and fro to look at every nook of the glass and steel airship terminal while they killed time before their flight. To the people walking by, she was merely an overactive girl in a mostly-black dress with a faux corset across her stomach, plus a brilliant red cloak on her shoulders secured by silver stars. To the blonde on the bench nearest their gate, she was Ruby Rose. "Ruby, you're gonna get us kicked out before we even make it to the Academy," she called. "Get back over here."

Despite her dash forward as a crimson-and-black smear, Ruby ended up seated by the time her form returned to its usual girl-shaped state. "Sorry. I mean, not really, but you know." She took up the handle of her rolling suitcase when Yang slid it over; like her dress – even her hair, which started black at the roots and faded into a deep red hue – it too had a red and black motif. A large rose in bloom decorated the front. "I still can't believe we get to go together!"

"Yeah." Yang, positioned with her hair carefully piled in her lap so she wouldn't end up sitting on it, quietly slid toward Ruby, even more quietly placed a hand behind her head to reach her farthest shoulder, then yanked her into a crushing hug. "I'm so proud of you!" she cooed, her tone now best described as intense, uncontrollable motherhood. "They skipped you ahead a year! You're _sooooooo_ smart!"

"Hhhggggkk!" Ruby grunted as her air supply rapidly decreased. "Yang! Air!" No amount of rapid taps on Yang's shoulder would make her let go. "Dying! Dying!"

"Ohhhh!" One more cheek-to-cheek nuzzle was issued before Yang released the hug and leaned back as Ruby gasped for air. "Look at this place." She swept her hand around at their section of the terminal waiting area. "We get our own airship _and_ a waiting room all to ourselves!"

That was true; the two girls were the only people seated here since their airship was reserved — technically for new arrivals en route to Beacon, not solely for the two of them. "Uh, I think that's 'cause we showed up like an hour early," Ruby pointed out after a minute.

Yang side-eyed her with a smile. "Don't ruin the moment." She chuckled as Ruby shoved her weakly with one hand. "Oh, look."

Two more had just arrived at the check-in desk. In front bounced a young girl with brilliant orange hair and aqua eyes; all Ruby and Yang could see of her clothing from here was a white and black sleeveless top with a heart-shaped cutout on her chest and strange metallic accents. Just behind her and off to her left stood a boy with mostly black hair — one lock of it on the left side of his head had either been dyed or just turned out pink — and clad in a forest green top with black accents, gold trim, and pink cuffs. His female companion seemed to have more than enough energy for the both of them; not only did she take control of the check-in process for them both, but once she finished that it became apparent she was carrying all of their suitcases too. "Ren, check it out!" she chirped as they walked into the waiting area. "Are you guys enrollees too?"

Yang offered a friendly grin as the arrivals drew closer, though a vaguely tense Ruby remained silent even as she smiled. The new kids eventually settled on the other end of their spacious bench. "Sure are. I'm Yang, and this is my sister Ruby." Both Ruby and the new boy leaned out into view around their more precocious companions and simply waved.

"What's up? I'm Nora! And—" She noticed Ruby mimic Ren's greeting and a huge smile bent her lips. "Ren. Oh my gosh. She's just like you. Hee… I guess I don't really need to introduce you now." She leaned in a little to mutter to the sisters. "His name's really Lie Ren, but it's cool if you call him Ren. "Lie" isn't really a great thing to call somebody all the time, I think. I'm not saying his name is bad, just—it's a little _awkward_. You get me?"

Yang flashed her a thumbs up. All four of them looked over as another person arrived at the desk; they were immediately struck by her height and hair color. Her vivid red locks were pulled back into a high, long ponytail. Her eyes shone like emeralds. Gold adorned not only her head in the form of a crown-like device obscured by her bangs, but as a large gorget that engulfed her neck and some of her collarbones too. Her clothes were little more than a leather bustier and a skimpy black skirt, though she had a red sarong tied around her waist. Her legs were clad in bronze armor from her thighs down to her black boots, as was one of her forearms. Both hands were covered by elbow-length black gloves.

While Yang sported a powerful frame befitting her brawler nature, this redhead made her look absolutely wispy by comparison. Unlike Nora and Ren, after finishing her check-in she took her suitcase and sat in the corner of the waiting area, as far away from them as she could get. "Geez, look at her," the blonde muttered. "She looks like she could bench-press a boat."

A curious Ruby scratched her head. "Haven't I seen her somewhere before? Her face… huh. I feel like I should know her name."

More arrivals derailed her train of thought. Two more girls stepped up to the desk, although their body language and distance apart indicated they weren't in the same party. Up front, a cat Faunus with wavy black hair and matching colored ears. Her eyes gleamed amber in the skylight's glow. Her outfit was all black and white, parted to show her navel and lacking sleeves, save her black thigh-high stockings, which faded into purple as they entered her shoes. Unlike the mighty redhead before her, this girl chose to sit on the bench across the aisle from Ruby and her new gang, though she produced a book from her black suitcase and immediately started to read it after getting there.

Yang wouldn't take her lack of interaction lying down; she waved with both arms until the bookworm's attention fell on her. "Come on, there's nothing as interesting in that book as I am. Say hello!"

"Ah…" The girl looked away as if distracted by a recollection, then chose, at length, to respond. "Hello. My name is Blake." Her voice was measured and slightly dusky.

The blonde gave her _two_ thumbs up. "That's the spirit! I'm Yang."

"Hm." Blake allowed herself a tiny smile as she examined the rest of Yang's companions. "Do they have names?"

"Ruby!" she squeaked, raising her hand slightly. "Uh, hello. Hi. Yang's my sister."

"Nora!" the auburn-headed stick of dynamite yelled, raising both hands as if the introduction process had now become a contest of escalations. She grabbed Ren's right wrist and raised his arm for him. "This is Ren! He's not good at yelling, but it's fine. He's great anyway."

"I see. Nice to meet you all." Blake regarded the siblings with a curious eye. "Sisters? I never would have guessed."

"Yeeeeeaaaaah." Ruby pointed at Yang with two fingers. "She looks like our dad." Then at herself in the same manner. "I look like our mom." Then she waggled both hands with a weird smile. "Genetics! I don't understand _any_ of it."

Nora suddenly bore a rather quizzical expression. "Wait, mom and dad? Then how did you guys end up—"

"Perhaps for the same reason I did."

This chippy observation belonged to the girl that once stood behind Blake at the check-in desk. She was the personification of winter in bitter expression and immaculate clothes alike; the only visible defect on her person existed in the form of a faint vertical scar across her left, icy blue eye. Her entire outfit shone either pale blue or white as snow, save her bolero jacket which sported a red interior. Unlike the others, she was also armed. The silver rapier on her hip contained a rotary mechanism in the hilt whose clear chambers were laden with four colors of Dust powder — red, white, blue, and yellow. She refused to clarify her remark any further on the way past and strode toward the tall redhead's side of the waiting area, her white suitcase in tow. Her pace was quick enough to make the ponytail on the right side of her head flutter like a pennant.

"Yeesh," Yang muttered as the girl left earshot. "Someone's got a stick up their—"

"Yang, no." Ruby tracked the girl's path until she finally sat down. "I like her hair, though. Pretty."

Nora's interest had already moved elsewhere. "Incoming!" she mumbled, finger pointed at the desk. A lanky blonde boy stood there, apparently puzzled about the whole process. They watched the clerk guide him through it successfully after about five minutes. His outfit seemed the most normal of them all — a black shirt to which pieces of white armor were attached, blue jeans, and sneakers — with a plain brown suitcase to match.

Unlike the icy princess before him, he seemed fairly amicable. "Uh, this _is_ the gate for the airship to Beacon, right?" he asked while sitting on the other end of Blake's bench.

"You got it," Nora chirped happily.

"Oh, good." He hefted his luggage up onto the bench and sighed. "I guess I'm with you guys, then? Jaune's the name."

Before anyone else could introduce themselves, Nora snatched command of the affair and did it on their behalf. "I'm Nora. She's Yang, that's Ruby, this is Ren—" Here she paused to ruffle Ren's hair a bit. "—that's Blake over there beside you, and I have _no idea_ what to call those two." She pointed over her shoulder toward where the redhead and the ice princess sat. "Did I get everyone's names right?" Concerted nodding was her answer.

A female voice from above cut their chat short. "Now boarding. Flight A for Beacon Academy. Flight A. Please line up at the gate."

"Shotgun!" Yang snapped, yellow suitcase in hand as she dashed to be first in the queue.

"You can't call shotgun in an airship! That's the co-pilot seat!" Ruby chided her, right on her heels. "At least I think that's how it works?"

Nora and Ren brought up her rear; the two other girls slipped in behind them, which left Jaune and Blake last in line. The tall redhead stood quietly in front of him for a few seconds until she looked back over her left shoulder and blinked at his presence, though she remained silent as she turned around.

Blake had already detected something about Jaune and frowned. "You seem a little nervous?"

"Huh?" He scratched at his golden locks and tried to laugh it off. "Yeah, yeah. I just didn't think I'd end up at Beacon. Didn't actually go to Signal or anything. My parents were really surprised to hear that I got picked." His face went blank. "Also not a big fan of flying."

Blake nodded at this; the Faunus also lacked a formal combat school education herself. She decided to try and help him calm down before they embarked. "I see." She inhaled a methodical breath for about four seconds, held it for seven, then let it slip out again for eight more. "Do you know about the four-seven-eight technique?"

"Oh, yeah! They taught us that when I was a kid." Jaune matched her pattern for a few moments. "Thanks for reminding me. I do feel a little better."

"You're welcome. I had to use it on the trip from Mistral. I… don't much like airships either." She walked along after him as the line ahead cleared up. "Here goes nothing, I guess."

The eight of them ascended a spiral ramp to reach their airship pad. Their ride for the short haul across the lake was outsized enough to not be considered a mere shuttle, but fell quite short of the majestic passenger liners used for longer inter-Kingdom trips. Sleek and silvery, it gleamed in the morning sun like a jewel. "Nice ride!" Yang praised as they climbed up the entry ramp. Inside was the first-class section, sixteen lavishly appointed seats, in rows four across with an aisle down the center, upholstered in forest green leather with wine carpet supporting them. "Can I fly it?"

"Yang..."

She grinned at Ruby before her attention fell on the female cabin crew member who waited to greet them. "What's up? Where do we sit?"

The reply: "Anywhere you like. We should have plenty of space."

"Neat. Shotgun!"

Ruby palmed her forehead without a word. The sisters chose to take the front-most seats on the left of the cabin. Nora and Ren claimed the other two chairs on their row. Blake ended up behind Ruby and Yang with an empty seat to her left, while Jaune plopped down in the seat behind Nora.

The tall redhead went as far back and to the right as she could before sitting down; to her surprise, the pale girl with the white ponytail alighted in the seat next to her. "Ah… hello?" she offered hesitantly.

Her words were muttered. "I know who you are." The expression in her icy eyes was all business. "You're Pyrrha Nikos."

Pyrrha couldn't believe the amount of imposition that oozed from her small frame. Despite being almost a foot taller, she felt compelled to match that quiet tone. "Yes. I am."

Even the smile on the pale girl's face looked slightly fake. "Weiss Schnee. A pleasure." They politely engaged in a brief handshake. "I have to admit, I find it rather curious that Haven Academy let you slip away. They need all the prestige they can get."

"It was not their decision." Pyrrha's glower betrayed her distaste of the topic; she chose to turn the tables on Weiss in hopes of ending their chat. "On that note, I find it hard to believe Atlas would let a Schnee go."

And she succeeded. "Touché. Like you said, it wasn't their decision. Let's speak again after we're on campus. I'm sure we could build a… mutually beneficial relationship." Weiss rose and shuffled to the back left corner of the cabin to spend the trip in solitude.

The hatch up front closed with a pneumatic hiss. "Seat belts, please!" the crew member said. "We're taking off shortly."

"Wait, what?" Ruby looked back at the half-full cabin. Unless others had boarded in the economy section behind them, something didn't feel right. "Where's everyone else?"

Yang slipped on a pair of dark sunglasses and relaxed to enjoy the ride. "What did you expect? Beacon's the top-level school in Vale. All the losers got weeded out ages ago."

Ruby snickered lowly. "Then how did _you_ make it in?" She yelped when the blonde yanked her ear. "Agh! I need that!"

A brief lurch prefaced the sensation of acceleration that heralded their ascent into the sky. About five minutes later, the seat belt sign went dark; Ruby, excited beyond her ability to remain still any further, hopped from her seat to look around a bit. Her attention drifted toward Pyrrha, who seemed oddly fascinated with the back of Jaune's head — he was humming to himself at this point — and had a vacant expression. Ruby couldn't shake the feeling that she knew her from somewhere. As the airship gently rose to its cruising altitude, she decided to say hello.

Unlike Weiss, Pyrrha regarded her arrival with a little more warmth. "Goodness, I'm getting so many visitors," she said. "Why would anyone want to talk to me?"

"Ahhhhh," Ruby said at first, content to sit down in the seat next to her while she collected her thoughts. "You're really tall."

The redhead couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "I have been told."

"Look, is it weird if I say I think I've seen you before?" Ruby examined her visage yet again, hopeful that from this close range she could figure it out. "Like your name is on the tip of my tongue."

For reasons Ruby couldn't explain, Pyrrha seemed rather happy that someone _didn't_ know her identity for once. She put on a broad, warm smile. "I wouldn't worry about it."

That expression, however, betrayed her; Ruby had seen an exact copy of it before and the memory flooded back. Her face lit up. "You were on the—!"

"Oh no," Pyrrha sighed, her smile entirely gone.

"The cereal box! Pumpkin Pete's!" Ruby's silver orbs exploded with stars. "You're Sanctum Academy's number one student! The—" Pyrrha's demeanor finally staunched her glee. "—uh, the invincible girl?" She fired uncertain looks in all directions. "I should go now." Jaune, Yang and Nora looked at them both from their respective seats, but neither girl acknowledged their quizzical gazes.

At least Weiss managed to keep this information to herself. Now the whole cabin knew. Pyrrha rubbed at her left temple with faint consternation. "No, no, it's all right. I'm only surprised I got away with it for this long. Please, just call me Pyrrha."

"Pyrrha. Yeah. My bad." Ruby had to stretch a bit to pat her shoulder. "Uh, if it helps, I think your weapon is really cool! A javelin-sword with a rifle spine. Gas-operated, right? Rotating bolt, eight-round clip of Standard 30 Alloy-Cased ammunition with the blade furniture in the buttstock?"

"Dork!" Yang called from the front row, hands cupped around her mouth.

"Excuse you. You wouldn't even have a weapon if it wasn't for me!" Ruby glared daggers at her sister before looking back at Pyrrha for a reaction.

There was no small amount of respect in those emerald eyes. "It's not often I find someone who seems to appreciate the tools as much as the people using them," Pyrrha remarked, the shadow of a smile on her face once more.

"Are you crazy? Mistral's weapon technology is so fancy! I scaled up some of their concepts for my own baby." No amount of self-control could stop the peal of glee that came from Ruby's lips afterward. "Oh! I'll go get it and show you!"

"Oh no you don't," Yang countered, her arms tightly around the red and black suitcase. "You haven't shut up about Crescent-whatever for a year and you probably won't for the next four. Give us at least _fifteen_ _minutes_ of peace."

Ruby allowed herself as much anger as she felt comfortable bearing — an amount that barely drew a frown across her face — but smiled quickly afterward. "Okay, fine, I guess." Another glance at the redhead. "Oh, uh, I'm Ruby. Nice to meet you."

"A pleasure." Unlike Weiss, her tone indicated that Pyrrha actually meant these words. "You're quite the ball of energy."

"You have no idea."

"Nobody asked you, Yang!" Ruby departed the redhead's company and stomped lightly over to give her sister an outsized piece of her mind.

While Pyrrha did pay a little mind to their argument — nothing more dangerous than the tinny banter of siblings — her attention went mostly to the fact that Jaune's blue eyes were upon her still. "I'm sorry about the disturbance," she offered.

"Huh? I'm not mad. You were on a cereal box?" His grin lit up every corner of Pyrrha's heart. "That's so cool."

"Oh, well…" She rubbed at her mouth simply to hide the faint blush on her cheeks. "I wish it had been something a little, ah, healthier."

Nora chimed in all the way from the front, her voice like distant, happy thunder. "Pff, who cares about healthy! Give me a bowl full of sugar and calories anyday." A silent Ren shook his head beside her. "What?" And then something else grabbed her transient attention. "Oh! I see it! Beacon!"

Everyone save Weiss and Blake moved to peer through the oval windows. Perched on the edge of a tremendous forested cliff, with rivers slicing through its campus to their termination as waterfalls under a trio of suspended airship pads, stood a cluster of towers whose base was shrouded by mist. The tallest of these structures contained spherical devices that emitted a fierce green light. "Back to your seats, please!" the blankly-smiling cabin crew member said. "We're starting our descent."

"Oh boy." Ruby darted back to her seat and buckled up for the approach toward her destiny. She gripped the armrests for dear life. "It's happening! It is actually happening."

Yang placed a hand on her left shoulder. "Easy. I'm right here."

They alighted on one of the dangling steel airship pads not two minutes later. When they emerged from the cabin and down the ramp, it became apparent that their airship had been at the front of a pack; the other pads were occupied by airships also disgorging their passengers. Two Valesian Air Force military escorts hovered overhead, sleek fighter ships with wingtip mounted engines built for agility and speed. "Bullheads?" Ruby said, eyes locked onto them. "I didn't even know they were following us."

Yang pushed her sunglasses back up her nose as they all started walking. "You were too busy gushing about cereal and weapons."

Ruby emitted a terrific huff. "At no point did I gush about cereal."

With room to maneuver again, they split up. Ruby and Yang paired off, as did Nora and Ren. Blake chose to linger on the left edge of their loose clump with Pyrrha near her orbit. Jaune shuffled along by himself on the right edge of their formation. Weiss bolted ahead on rapid strides, determined to put as much distance between herself and the rest as she could. Along they walked on a path of polished diorite, lined on both sides by intermittent deployments of benches, steel trash cans, and black cast-iron lampposts. A circular stone structure, not much more than a ring of columns and archways with no ceiling, was the closest; beyond that loomed the towers they had seen from the air.

And there were helpful signs. "Orientation" they proclaimed, a red arrow underneath. "Uh…" Ruby mumbled to herself after a glance backward; she estimated about four dozen students within eyesight, including their little clump in the lead. "Is this it?"

Yang's eyes darted back as well. She stowed her sunglasses and donned a blank look in their place. "Uh… wow. Maybe you've got a point. I guess I _was_ expecting a few more people."

"This way, please!" called the voice of an unfamiliar woman. They saw her a minute later, a bespectacled tall blonde with a black-on-purple cape whose lower edge was writhing arrows that pointed toward the ground. Her right hand gripped a black riding crop. "Right this way."

The whole crowd turned right at her direction and entered a large circular building lined with windows near its conical roof. Despite the presence of a stage on the opposite side of the room, there were no seats to be found. People stood immersed in chatter among themselves after they arrived. The tall blonde from before strode through their ranks and onto the stage. "Sorry about the delay. The Headmaster will be down from his office shortly and we can get started."

In the meantime, Pyrrha used her height to examine the crowd. A few stuck out — a girl with orange locks in a bob cut and a crooked pink hair bow among them — but she didn't have long to observe before someone appeared on stage. Cane in hand, this new arrival wandered up to the microphone. Dressed in dark green, with gray hair and small dark glasses, he was taller than even the blonde woman who now stood slightly behind his left shoulder. The crowd fell silent and turned to face him without any urging on his part. "Good morning, good morning. Quite the class we have today, isn't it?"

"Really?" Ruby whispered, still dumbfounded by the emptiness of the auditorium.

He continued. "My name is Ozpin, and as some of you may know, I am the Headmaster here at Beacon Academy. Just behind me here is Glynda Goodwitch, the Assistant Headmaster. We'd both like to welcome you all to your home for the next four years." A muttered 'thank you' from almost every member of the crowd came and went before he pressed on. "For those of you arriving from feeder schools such as Signal Academy, you will find the learning environment here somewhat different. Our focus at this level is less on classroom teaching than it is practical combat experience. You are already students. Here, we shall make you warriors." He paused again to clear his throat and put on a wry grin. "Although, I will advise you that elective classes are available should you feel that you miss the idea of book reports and homework." He got the expected chuckle from his audience and moved on. "For those of you entering our Academy via special circumstances, especially the considerable amount of foreign exchange students who were accepted this year, let me also welcome you to the Kingdom of Vale. If you should feel like strangers in a strange land, do not hesitate to seek out the assistance of myself or Professor Goodwitch."

Now he took the microphone from its stand and began to move around. "Which brings me neatly to _why_ we're all here. My apologies again to our feeder school graduates — you've probably heard this speech about a dozen times from teachers far more eloquent than I — but for the new blood, let me lay out our mission statement. We currently find ourselves in a time of relative peace. While our armies keep the borders of our Kingdoms safe and secure from the beasts at our doorstep, human nature is to expand ever onward, past our comfortable limits, and toward a grander future. As prospective Huntsmen and Huntresses, you are the vanguard of that journey."

"Even though towns in the middle of nowhere never work? Like, ever?" asked a turquoise-haired girl in the crowd. Her peers, both in the immediate vicinity and elsewhere, offered subtle nods or utterances of agreement — Ruby and Yang included.

Ozpin's smile never wavered. "Be that as it may, they are still our brothers and sisters. If life outside of the Kingdoms is what they choose, it falls to us to protect them as best we can."

"I guess that seems fair," the girl replied at length.

"Good. Now that we know the why, let's address the how. For your freshman campaign, you shall be grouped into teams of four, numbers permitting." He fell silent as his pocket began to emit a ringtone. "Goodness me, my work is never done, is it?" He plucked out his black-framed Scroll to see the identity of the caller, subtly ensuring that the translucent screen was visible to him and him alone. The name _Amber_ sat below a circle where a picture of the caller would have been. "Oh, dear, this one is important. Glynda, would you do the honors?"

"Very well." Glynda stepped up as Ozpin replaced the microphone in its stand and took his leave. She too had a Scroll in her hand. "Due to the size of the class, I'll sort the teams out now and let you get to your dorms to unpack. Details about your personal Scrolls and such will be addressed on a team-by-team basis by the staff later today. When I call your name, please join me on stage. You may leave the auditorium once your whole team is together."

Ruby clamped onto Yang for dear life. "Please let us be on the same team pleasepleaseplease _please_ —"

"Pff, calm down." She would never admit it, but a torrent of the same emotion swirled in her head despite the visible grin on her face.

"Ruby Rose," Glynda called, eyeballing the first name on her list.

"Ahhhhhhhhh—" Ruby shuffled toward the stage with her suitcase in tow. To label her expression strained would have been a considerable understatement; she bounced anxiously on her feet behind the much taller woman.

"Yang Xiao Long."

"Oh thank the gods," Ruby exhaled, her stress departing in one grand exhalation as she deflated in her boots. Yang joined her on stage a minute later. "Hi."

"We really gotta stop meeting like this," Yang joked, ruffling her sister's hair.

"Blake Belladonna."

A much more composed Blake wandered up to stand by Yang, who fired two finger guns at her in response. She rolled her yellow eyes with a tiny smile.

"And, finally… Weiss Schnee."

Weiss arrived on stage with all the cheerfulness of a blizzard, putting Ruby _and_ Yang between herself and Blake, whom she eyed once with an unreadable emotion and proceeded to ignore quickly afterward.

Glynda looked over her shoulder at the quartet. "Dormitory 3, Room 12. Leave here and turn right. There's a sign past the courtyard that will guide you."

"Ah, okay?" Ruby grappled with her luggage as they all set off together. Behind them, Glynda called out Pyrrha's name, which drew a few surprised hoots from the rest of the assembly. "Maybe I should have asked for her autograph."

Weiss snorted at her remark. "Why would she sign anything for someone like you?"

Yang placed herself between Ruby and Weiss protectively. "I don't think I appreciate your tone."

She wouldn't even dignify the blonde's anger with a glance. "You called her a dork not forty minutes ago."

"I'm her sister. I'm _obligated_ to call her a dork."

"Okay, calm down, please. Breathe. Everyone breathe." Despite not intending to, Ruby led the charge across the vast, circular courtyard. "I know we're all probably nervous and stuff right now." A look at Blake did nothing to support her theory. "Except you. You look bored? Uh… let's just find our room, then we can get to know each other a little better."

"Oh, yes, that idea sounds absolutely enthralling."

Weiss' bitter sarcasm had Ruby on her heels; she wasn't at all used to interactions with someone so prickly. "Yeaaaah?" she whined, trying her best to remain sass-free so her sister wouldn't feel anymore of a need to start fighting than she already might. "Enthralling! That is… that is a word."

"It means fascinating," Blake whispered into her right ear.

"Thank you," Ruby whispered back hastily. "Oh, I see the sign!"

Ten minutes of travel got the four of them to their new home. Two sets of bunk beds braced a window on the wall opposite the door as they walked in. Those walls were eggshell white. A round wine carpet occupied the center of the oaken floor. Empty bookshelves lined the floor under the window, as well as the upper walls on either side of the doorway. There were two desks and chairs under that wall shelving. A set of green curtains was just about the extent of the room's decor. "Aw, it's just like home!" Yang chirped as she examined the place. "Without the smell of burnt breakfast food. Nice change of pace."

Weiss, on the other hand, bore an expression somewhere between disappointment and resignation. "It will do."

Ruby didn't even bother to respond to her in fear of another awkward exchange. "Well, I guess the first order of business is to choose who gets which bed." She watched Blake sit on the bottom bunk on the right side of the window and blinked. "I meant we should take a vote, probably, but fine?"

"Top!" Yang easily launched herself onto the bed above Blake and stretched out across it on her back. "Huh. Not bad." Ruby's huff earned her a light smirk. "Better hurry, sis, they're going fast!"

Weiss plopped her rear down on the lower bunk on the window's opposite side. "I am _not_ climbing a ladder every morning and night," she stated coldly.

"Ohhhhhhhkay, then. I guess I get the other top." She'd check it out later; right now it felt like a good time to unpack, so she walked to one of the corner desks to sit. "Now then, uh, shouldn't we pick a team leader?" Her attention had been on her suitcase until the brick wall of silence fell on her ears. "Guys?"

She looked up to find them all staring at each other. Weiss offered her assessment first. "Obviously it has to be me," she said, one hand on her chest for emphasis. Her brow furrowed when Yang busted out laughing. "I don't see what's so funny."

"Yeah, no. The only way I'd follow your icy butt into battle is if I was _pushing_ you toward the enemy." Yang took a moment to unload the golden gauntlets from her suitcase and slide them onto her wrists to check their fit. "Hey, that's not such a bad idea. Maybe you can talk the Grimm to death."

"How _dare_ you—"

Yang cut her off both vocally and with a hand motion to indicate the flapping of lips. "Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I'm the oldest, I'm the most mature. I vote for me."

"Enough!" Ruby snapped, hands on her head. A grimace of frustration chased her outburst. Once she breathed herself back into serenity, she looked toward the stone-faced Blake for help with breaking through this stalemate. "What do you think?"

Blake's eyes went to Weiss, then Ruby, then up toward Yang before she gazed off into the middle distance. "I don't care as long as it isn't me."

Her face went absolutely blank. "I—I mean, I guess I appreciate your honesty, but…" Ruby stood up out of the chair and walked to the center of the room. "So, one vote for Yang, one vote for Weiss, and Blake…" Their eyes met again, with Ruby's expression urging — outright pleading, in fact — her to make a choice. " _Pleaaaaaaseeeeeeee_?" she whispered.

The Faunus crossed her arms and frowned. It took an uncomfortable moment of silent reflection before her eyes lit up. "Actually… if anyone in here is acting like a leader, it's Ruby. She's the one interested in _all_ of our opinions."

"I gave you my opinion!" Weiss and Yang blurted out simultaneously. Only the blonde seemed to realize what she said afterward. "Crap, wait. You're right." She hopped down and walked over to her sister. "Whatcha think, Ruby? You up for being in charge?"

"Absolutely not!" she squeaked with terror.

"Now _that_ is the face of confidence." Yang slid an arm around her shoulder to prevent any attempts to retreat. "I mean, I'd trust you in a fight. Have before." Her words were meant to catch Ruby off guard and break her anxiety.

They worked to perfection. "Really?" Ruby glanced over at a displeased Weiss, then toward a more receptive, if stoic, Blake. "Um… what do you guys think?"

Blake, feline ears twitching, assented to the idea with a light nod. "I'm willing to give it a shot. It's not like we can't make a change later, right?"

"Yeah!" Ruby chased off a thought which contained the phrase _if we all live that long_ with a breath so deep it made Yang blink with concern. "Yeah. Uh… Weiss?"

Her quizzical tone went unanswered for silent ages as Weiss debated the concept internally. She balanced the value of persisting in her disdain against the emotional risk it presented. If she wanted to survive, then the path of least resistance would be the best business decision for all involved. Besides, at least the girl had _asked_ , which was a damn sight better than the usual exchanges of the life she left behind. "Very well," was her measured response. "For now."

"Sweet." Yang patted Ruby on the head and scurried out of swatting range. "I guess we're Team Ruby now, huh? Huh? Right?"

Weiss' eyes narrowed to slits. "Don't push it."

Blake could no longer avoid a smile as she shook her head. "Let's just be us for now. I think we'll have enough to worry about as it is."

* * *

Opher waited idly behind the shop's glass display case as Indigo continued to fret over her Scroll. "If the shipment isn't right this time, it wasn't right the first four times you looked at it. I think you're probably fine."

"Quiet, new guy. It's not gonna be our fault if our first run to Beacon doesn't have what they ordered." Squints and frowns were thrown at the manifest until the text no longer resembled words, she'd been looking at it so long. "They want 'em broken down into individual student orders. You're not gonna get lost on the campus, are you?"

"Considering you've spent the past six days _encouraging_ me to memorize a map, no. I doubt it." A blasé Opher tossed his hat up and down, beyond unconcerned with the task. "Indigo, I will be fine. An airship ride to a school to drop off Dust is well within my ability."

"Yeah, yeah, but if you fuck up it's my ass on the line." Indigo snapped the device closed and looked up at him. "I have never seen someone give less than a shit than you do about _everything_ in my damn life. If we get dropped from the list, I'll have to fire your ass."

He side-eyed her without turning his head. "Oh no, I'll have to go back to work for the Schnees. What will I do with their paltry salary?"

"This isn't funny!" she snapped back, hands firmly on her lips. "I've got my entire life savings invested in this shop."

"You're right, it's not funny. It's adorable. You're worried enough for the both of us." He cracked a smile when she walked over and smacked him lightly on the arm. "Now, now, no violence. Wouldn't want to get in trouble, would you?"

While the phrase, when it came from his lips, was a joke, he did have a point. Indigo proceeded to engage in the curious breathing exercise she'd pull out whenever her nerves got the best of her. She wasn't the only one he'd seen doing it, either; much of the city's populace seemed to know the trick too. "I just… I want it to go well," she finally muttered. "I worked so hard to get on this list."

Opher plopped a hand onto her shoulder just long enough to avoid a slap at the appendage. "I'll make you proud." The silent effort he needed to resist adding the word _mother_ onto that statement was immense.

A vaguely flustered Indigo rubbed at her scalp and turned away. "Yeah, well—" Her ringing Scroll interrupted their talk. "Diamond Dust!" she answered, far too cheerily, "Indigo speaking!" She listened for a moment. "Okay. I'll send him out right now." She issued her next statement without looking back. "It's time. Head to the freight terminal on 27th and Chalcedony Avenue. And…" At last she turned to look at him. " _If_ you don't screw up, when you get back I'll buy us lunch."

"Your generosity truly knows no bounds." He tugged on his hat and made for the door. "Tell Schwarze I want the good fish this time."

Indigo called after him through a huge grin. "Sure, right after I tell her how you just insulted her cooking!"

Once again, Opher found himself out and about in Vale. Getting to his destination wouldn't be much issue — the whole city was laid out on a grid system, easy to remember and navigate. The blank smiles of the residents, however, still gave him pause even after a week's worth of exposure. Three people on the sidewalk had stopped in their tracks to breathe as he walked by, though why they'd become emotional, he had no idea. As he wandered into the industrial sector, he saw another one or two doing the same thing every few minutes. Fervent apologies for collisions filled the late morning air.

Yet that was as loud as the city seemed to get. As loud as it had _ever_ gotten in his brief stay here. Vale had over half a million people within its borders — at least if Indigo was to be believed — but Opher had been in villages one-thousandth of its size that felt twice as lively. Birdsong was still clearly audible despite the early morning crowds, as though the only difference between the forest he'd come from and the city itself was a relative lack of trees. He threaded his way down the sidewalk and pressed on toward a relatively tall stone brick structure with two airship pads on its roof. Both were occupied. The people ahead of him parted for a pair of police officers, one male and one female, who traveled in the direction opposite his. The only way he knew they were cops were their gray uniforms; they were entirely unarmed. Not even a baton could be found on their persons. "Excuse us, excuse us," the woman chirped with a smile. "Just passing through. Sorry." They passed by him without a second look. Five or so minutes later, Opher had arrived at his destination; he scaled one last set of steps to emerge onto the roof.

"You're the courier for Diamond Dust?" asked the worker standing by the nearest airship. In her hand was a chip scanner.

Opher handed over his passport so she could ensure his identity. "Yep."

She eyed the details on her screen. His status in Vale's system had been updated with his new occupation, which provided a nice layer of authenticity it lacked before. "All right, you're good to go." She returned his chip and waved toward the vessel's open cargo ramp as she moved aside. "Have a good trip!"

"Yeah." He now stood alone in the cargo bay with enough Dust and ammunition to level a large building or two, maybe three. He occupied the lone jump seat in the cargo bay to await takeoff. As they ascended, he caught a glimpse of an escort falling in with his ship through the sole window across the hold. With no one to talk to, he chose to pass the time on the gold-framed Scroll Indigo had helped him buy and eyeballed the list of people he'd need to find to disseminate the shipment. There were about two dozen names overall. Every estimate he came up with about how long it would take put a scowl on his face.

By the time he finished this effort the airship had already started its descent. It landed with a firm _thump_ on the pad, followed by a slow hiss as the rear cargo ramp dropped open. Opher snatched the hand truck full of cargo and dragged it out behind him into the sunshine. On the way by, he realized why he had an airship all to himself: the other freighter in the pack was loaded to its gills both with cargo and the merchants looking after it. It would take them ages to unload and organize, which boded well for his desire to finish this off as efficiently as possible without the need to compete with other people.

If he could manage to locate the dorms. He tugged his load down the broad pathway in search of the residential buildings, on through the circular courtyard, and toward the cluster of towers that dominated Beacon's campus. The lack of students finally registered after a few minutes. "Where—wait, they're probably in their dorms still." They'd just gotten here, after all; he stared at his Scroll for positional advice and found those dormitories to be almost straight ahead. "Oh. That's fine."

The orders seemed to be concentrated in buildings two and three, so he decided to start with the furthest dorm and then work forward. Building three would receive his attention first. Once he arrived in the lobby, he found a gaggle of outlandishly-clad students with variably ridiculous hairstyles, all milling about among themselves. A couple of them noticed his arrival and turned to look at him. "Uh, hello?" he offered awkwardly. "I've got Dust and ammunition orders to hand out."

"The courier!" Nora said, her every step a bounce as she came up to him. "I'm Nora Valkyrie."

Opher detached the straps that secured the handtruck's bounty and looked for her name. "Let's see, Nora…" He found one box, then two, both of which held significant weight. "These are yours." A glance at the rest of the labels yielded nothing. "Looks like that's it. Tell you all what, I'll call names and hand this stuff out. Get in line."

They obeyed almost instantly, which unsettled him a little for reasons he couldn't quite place. Nora gave way for her silent partner but didn't leave his side. "Oh, by the way, his name is Lie Ren," she said. "Should be mostly pistol ammo."

Six compact boxes of the stuff, plus two small cases of crystal Dust. "Got it. Here you go." He proceeded to read labels from the top of the stack. "Ruby Rose?"

"Oh, me! Me!" The jumpy girl received three boxes of what appeared to be high-caliber rifle ammo. "Yesssssss, food for my baby."

"Yang…" This surname caused Opher's face to screw up. "I'm just going to call you Yang."

"Yo!" A blonde sauntered up. "Xiao Long, by the way." Four boxes of Dust-tipped shotgun shells were hers.

"Right. I hate it when people fuck up my last name, I didn't want to do it to you. Weiss… wait. Schnee?" Opher tracked her arrival to the front with tremendous interest. "How the hell did _you_ end up _here_?"

She eyed him with immense disdain. "Frankly, it's none of your business." Eight full boxes of Dust powder went into her waiting arms before she left.

"Whatever. Blake Belladonna." She appeared with much less fuss than Weiss and uttered no sort of greeting at all. He idly noted her Faunus ears. Five boxes of metal-cased Dust rounds, pistol caliber, belonged to her. "Let's see. Reese Chloris?" Here came a girl with wild turquoise hair and a purple hoodie. Like Blake, she received a copious amount of pistol-caliber ammo and some Dust crystals to boot. The next label to catch his eye made him blink; the container to which it was stuck was massive. "Jaune Arc?"

"Right here." He had much the same reaction as Opher when he saw his prize. "Wow." Its weight made him grunt as he waddled away. "What is in this?!"

Whatever its contents, they were no longer Opher's problem. "Uh, how do I say this?" he muttered at the next label. "Pyrrha Nikos?" No one came forward. "Did I screw it up that badly, or—"

"Whoops, she's not here!" Nora chimed in. "She went to get a snack. We're on her team. We'll take her stuff for her." She pointed to herself, Ren, and the completely over-encumbered Jaune.

"All right, then." Opher relinquished several cases of Dust-filled rifle bullets into Nora's care. At this point his cargo had dwindled by nearly half. "Arslan Altan?"

By the time he ran out of names, there were only a dozen boxes of goods left on Opher's dolly. The rest of the kids seemed to be in building two, so he took his leave and walked back outside. He didn't see the tall redheaded girl striding his way. "Goodness, I completely forgot!" she said when they drew closer. "I'm sorry, do you have anything for a Pyrrha Nikos?"

Opher, whose attention had been on his Scroll up to that point, finally laid eyes on her. "Oh, yeah. Some girl named Nora has your—" Every single sunrise since he had last seen that face disintegrated into blurry insignificance. She looked so much like the young woman that had driven him into isolation that for a moment he forgot how to breathe properly. What made it worse was the fact that _she_ had a similar expression on her face before he even looked up — and he had no idea why. "Uhh…" he finally breathed, proper vocalization now completely beyond his stunned mind.

Pyrrha wasn't in much better shape; she drifted toward him as if commanded by gravitational attraction, staggered not by his appearance, but the stupefying presence she detected emanating from his frame. "Nora!" she finally blurted out, "Yes, she's on my team! Right." At last she managed to shuffle by him and toward the dormitory. "Thank you! Sorry for startling you!" She was gone.

Her team was quick to notice when she arrived and went to say hello. "Pyrrha! We gotcha stuff!" Nora held out the boxes of rounds for her rifle.

"Yes, thank you," she replied quietly, white as a sheet. "I just…" While she had an excuse, the redhead moved closer to Nora to contextualize what she'd just felt. Nothing out of the ordinary about her Aura, the redhead learned. The same went for Ren. Both projected fields around their bodies about the size and strength that she'd expect.

"Are you okay? You look kinda sick," Jaune asked.

Pyrrha already knew about Jaune's Aura from being near him in line to board their airship hours earlier. While it was substantial in volume and intensity, to be sure, somewhat beyond the other two members of their new team, it still paled against the brilliance of the ungodly, incomprehensible _thing_ she had just felt. "Yes, I'm fine," she lied, at last claiming her boxes from a confused Nora. She eyed the labels and discovered her name just below the phrase "Diamond Dust", two words she filed away for later. "I'm just anxious to get started!"

"Oh." Jaune, too oblivious to pick up her fib, went back to the strain of wrangling his own copious box. "Me too. If I can get this thing up the stairs."

"I'll help you." Before that, however, Pyrrha sneaked one more look back at the stranger outside, only to find he'd already moved on.

* * *

Nightfall at Beacon introduced a whole new level of quiet to an already rather desolate campus. The atmosphere in Ruby's dorm room stood between glee and realization of the gravity of their new lives.

A portion of the former of these two feelings came from the devices they all now possessed. While Ruby and Yang were used to professional-level Scrolls — they were issued the devices when they first arrived at Signal Academy — Weiss and Blake had never owned tablet-sized versions before. It was up to the sisters to help them navigate their new toys.

"I have to have this on my person for an entire day? Whatever for?" Weiss asked.

"'Cause the new Aura measurement software needs to record how your Aura fluctuates and stuff," Yang explained from her lofty bed-perch across the room. "That takes about a day. It gets more accurate the more you wear your Scroll, so we just had ours all the time back home."

"Except in the shower," Ruby added with a giggle. "Even if they are waterproof. Rain won't hurt them."

Weiss didn't appear to completely buy this explanation, but played along all the same. "I… see. So there's an electromagnetic sensor in here."

"Yeah!" Ruby tapped on Weiss' screen a few times. "Here's where you can set your low Aura warning tone! Whatever sound you want, even music. Better make it something loud, though."

Blake, for her part, chose to follow Ruby and Yang's advice in silence while struggling with what all of this fancy equipment and instruction really meant. It wasn't the combat aspect that bothered her — her doting parents made sure she had the best private self-defense instruction that Menagerie could offer — but rather the enemy she would now face. Never before had Blake fought someone or something that truly meant to _kill_ her. She glanced up as Yang spoke once again.

"There's one default sound that works really well," the blonde stated. "It's just beeps, but _gods_ , I used it for a few months and I'd hear it in my dreams. Sometimes I still do."

"Oh, I know which one you mean!" her sister blurted out. She followed up with a shrill impression of the tone that made everyone cringe.

Weiss' face contorted in disgust after Ruby fell silent. "That sounds dreadful."

"Hey, whatever keeps you alive."

Thanks jointly to Ruby's skull-rattling chirp and Yang's almost flippant summation of their reality, Blake found herself with a bit of a headache. She closed up her Scroll, tucked it into a pocket, and stood. "I'm going to get some air," she said lowly.

"Blake?" Ruby called after her. "You okay?"

She donned the best smile she could manage as she reached the door. "I'm fine, just… not used to the idea of having roommates yet, I guess."

"On that, we agree," Weiss muttered to herself.

Glorious solitude awaited her in the hallway after she left. As Beacon lacked a set lights-out time — much to her surprise — Blake had all night to wander if she so chose. The idea of just fleeing from her new team altogether was entertained as a quickly-dismissed joke that made Blake smile. A wall of muggy night air greeted her as she emerged from the dorm building. Most of the light came from the broken moon above her. Stars filled the inky sky. Hardly a sound reached her ears beyond the distant flow of river water and the calls of various insects in the forest.

Until she detected the whistling.

A nocturnal bird this definitely wasn't. Curious, she began a game of hot-and-cold to try and find its source. Moving toward the round courtyard seemed to do the trick; before long she realized she wasn't alone there. Beyond the large statue that dominated the courtyard's center stood a silhouette next to some kind of cart. A pair of terrific bunny ears sat atop this person's head. With her excellent night vision, Blake picked out details as she drew closer; this person wore some kind of dark-colored jumpsuit, which mostly hid their feminine curves. On they whistled, wholly unaware of Blake's presence until she actually spoke. "Hello?"

Her answer was a terrific squeal of fright. The girl whirled on Blake, so badly started that the cat Faunus darted backward on her heels a few feet. It was then that she noticed those feline ears and her entire demeanor changed. "Oh… oh!" she gasped, her terror replaced by happy surprise in a second. "You're a new face. I didn't know we had any Faunus in the freshman class." Her words rang brightly with an accent Blake couldn't identify.

Once past the shock, she felt equally pleased to see another Faunus. "I think I'm the only one," she admitted through a light smile. "I take it you're an upperclassman? I didn't see you this morning."

"Oh, no, no, I just work here." She grabbed her cart and pushed it along, a wave of her hand inviting Blake to fall in alongside. "Name's Velvet!"

Her reply didn't make sense. Velvet seemed no older than Blake herself. "I'm Blake. You work here?"

"Oh, sure. I'm kinda like a janitor, but Miss Goodwitch prefers the term 'campus sanitation specialist'." Her long, chestnut hair danced lightly in the breeze as they walked on.

"Huh." Blake glanced at her face and saw them as they passed under the blue-white glow of a lamppost. Concealed light scars streaked haphazardly across Velvet's cheeks — Blake's first guess was that they were the result of knife slashes — among which tore a deeper gouge across the bridge of her nose. That wound must have nearly cost her at least one, if not both of her eyes.

And while Blake chose not to bring it up out of deference, Velvet guessed why she kept staring and smiled at her. "You see 'em, huh? It's all right."

"Ah, well, I didn't want to pry." Blake pawed lightly at her wavy locks and frowned. "What happened?"

Vacancy seized Velvet's smile. "We…" She seemed to lose the rest of her thought for a moment. "...don't talk about that," she concluded tonelessly. Instantly she engaged in the same breathing technique Blake had shown to Jaune in the airship terminal. After a few cycles of this, she came to a halt next to one of the trash cans. "Whoops, I gotta empty this. One second."

"Oh, um, sure." Blake stepped back to give her room while she tried to figure out the identity of Velvet's _we_. A sequence of unpalatable possibilities danced in her head. Perhaps the rabbit Faunus was a former student, no longer able to fight due to her injuries. Then why didn't she just say so? There was no shame in it. The thought of shame brought her to another question; why avoid the topic? Everything Blake knew about dealing with emotions focused on the benefit — the _necessity_ — of communication. Suppression led to misery. Misery brought the Grimm. Wouldn't keeping secrets make Velvet dangerous?

Unless someone _on campus_ did this to her. Blake shook her head with revulsion — if so, the perpetrator had surely been expelled for their high crime. For now, she decided, she'd have to trust the situation and assume Velvet held enough command of her emotions to avoid luring in the beasts. The approach of a third person drew her attention; Blake could hear the scuff of shoes on stone in the direction of the airship pads before she actually saw the figure headed toward them. They were notably taller than either Faunus, even taking Velvet's ears into account. "Velvet?" called the figure. Another girl, though her voice was slightly deeper. "I heard you squeal."

"Coco!" Velvet set the trash can back into place and moved happily over to meet her. "Look! Another Faunus."

Blake proved far more reluctant to say hello and stood her ground. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to startle her."

"Ah, you're cool." Coco and Velvet walked back into the light. For whatever reason, the taller girl had on a pair of sunglasses — likely to coordinate with her stylish outfit, Blake surmised. A large black box with golden trim was in her right hand. "New kid, aren't you? Saw you get off the airship this morning. I'm Coco Adel, a sophomore."

Out of respect, Blake adopted a stiffer posture and nodded. "Blake Belladonna. Nice to meet you." She blinked when Coco started to laugh. "Huh?"

"Calm down, man, I ain't a fuckin' teacher." Coco patted Velvet on the shoulder and sent her back to work. "We don't get many Faunus out this way. I guess most of 'em end up at Haven Academy 'cause of the Headmistress. How'd you get here?"

"Well…" Blake's eyes rolled as she thought back to one of her father's many speeches. "My parents wanted the best for me, and Beacon was it, so here I am."

Coco's smile faded out of existence as she listened. It ceased to be entirely by the time she answered. "Yeah. I hear that a lot." She produced her Scroll to check the hour. "I know we don't have an official lights-out, but you'd better get some sleep while you can. Trust me. You'll need it."

"Yes ma'am," Blake replied quickly, which drew another chuckle from Coco's lips. "Sorry. Habit. I guess mom and dad trained me pretty well."

"I think you're the first person to call me 'ma'am' since I got here." Coco threw up a wave of her gloved hand and grinned once more. "Good luck. See you around." She waited a long time for Blake to get out of earshot before her attention went back to Velvet. "Yo. Did she notice?"

Velvet, too busy with her broom and errant leaves on the pathway, didn't look up. "Even through the makeup. I mean, she would, she's a cat Faunus." Silence from Coco finally drew her eye. "Coco… please, no. She seems _so_ nice. She doesn't deserve—"

"Deal's a deal, Velvet, and I'll be damned if I let us get kicked out of this place. I don't care how friendly she is." She placed her box down in order to have two hands free for her Scroll. A few taps at its screen placed a call. "Ma'am. It's Adel."

The voice of Glynda Goodwitch reached her ear. "I thought you were out on perimeter duty."

Coco scratched under her black beret with a frown. "I was. Velvet screamed, so I came back to check on her. Turns out she'd struck up a chat with one of the freshmen."

Glynda's tone became gloomy. "I see. You have a name?"

"Yeah. Blake Belladonna."

A few seconds passed before Coco got a surprise. "She's already on the watch list."

"Wait, really?" She tried to figure out why that might be and came up empty. "Dare I even ask why?"

"She's a Belladonna. If her family knew… well. Suffice it to say, the Grimm wouldn't be our only enemies if they found out." Glynda sighed. "Thank you for the heads-up anyway. I appreciate your vigilance."

"Yes, ma'am. I'm heading back out on patrol." The call ended. Coco tucked her Scroll away as she walked back to Velvet. "You good?"

That awful, hollow smile darkened her face again. "She was already on it, wasn't she?" Silence from Coco was all the answer she needed. "No, I'm not good. This sucks. Blake seems really nice."

"I'm not any happier about it than you are, but their rules are their rules. Not much we can do about them." She hugged Velvet lightly to her side. "I'll come find you when I get back in the morning and we can have breakfast, okay?"

Velvet returned the hug with one arm and allowed herself a tiny sigh. "Okay. Please be careful."

"Pff. You're such a sweetheart." They parted ways, though Coco only got a few feet before she turned around to add one more thing. "This ain't your fault."

"I know," Velvet said, broom in hand as she tried to sweep away her sorrow. The hollow smile continued to dominate her face. "But it always _feels_ like it is."


	3. In For a Penny

Beacon's circular combat arena held a few occupants this rainy morning. All of Ruby's team sat in the stands, as did Nora, Ren, and a few other kids whose names none of them knew yet. No teachers were about at the moment, since this period of the day had been specifically set aside for the freshman squads to get used to each other's combat abilities.

Or lack thereof, in Jaune's case. He found himself completely outmatched against Pyrrha on the arena floor. "Keep your shield up!" she advised him. A light overhead swing of her weapon, currently in shortsword form, still managed to knock it from his hand. "Oh, dear, I'm sorry…"

In the stands above, Ruby gawked at the display with total incredulity. "Um. Is it just me or does this guy look like he's never fought anyone before, anywhere?"

"He barely knows which end of his sword is which," Weiss added caustically. "How on Remnant did he get into this place?"

"I knew a few kids like him back at Signal. They all washed out. Some of them… took it really hard." Yang's hushed words cast a terrific pall over the group, so she decided her next statement had to be positive. "I mean, at least he's trying. That's something."

"Come on, let's do it again," Jaune demanded of his sparring partner. "I'm really ready this time." He dropped back into his stance, shield up and sword in his right hand. Pyrrha whipped a half-strength slash from his left side and easily dislodged the shield from his grasp yet again. "Oh, come on!"

Nora and Ren gravitated to Ruby's bunch shortly afterward and sat in the row of bleachers just in front of them. "This isn't _great_ ," Nora admitted after Jaune retrieved his shield. "I mean, I know not everybody has as much experience as we do," she paused to motion at herself and Ren, as well as Yang, "but wow."

The two combatants set themselves up once more. "Steel yourself," Pyrrha told him. "Just focus on deflecting my attack. You're getting caught up in how you'd respond afterward. We're not there yet."

"Right." Jaune raised his shield. "Let me have it!"

The look on the redhead's face said _I would never_ , but her mouth went with "If you insist?" instead. She chose to snap her weapon into its javelin form and toss it lazily in his direction — no application of Dust propellant or her Semblance, of course, because that probably would have killed him. To her horror, he panicked and raised his sword arm; before she could yank her weapon back magnetically, it struck him in the forearm with a metallic clang and dropped to the floor. "Are you alright?!" she asked after rushing over to him.

"Not gonna lie, it stings a little." There was a rip in his clothing, as well as a shallow cut in the skin below, but the free iron redirected by his Aura had soaked up the impact beautifully. "I'm fine. Just a little cut."

It started to close up even as she watched it. "Oh, good. What does your gauge say?"

"Hold on." His Scroll was affixed to the back of his shield; the software indicated a nearly-full bar of green. "No problem. See? Just a scratch."

Pyrrha sighed as she retrieved her weapon. Despite the positive outcome, she still felt a little rattled. "Perhaps we should let someone else have a turn for now."

Jaune was under no illusions about how poorly he'd done and didn't want to push her nerves. "Right. I'm gonna get some water. I'll be back."

"You can do it, Jaune!" Ruby called, hands cupped around her mouth, as he walked by. "We all believe in you! It's okay! You're still learning!" A defeated Pyrrha climbed up the bleachers to sit with them. "Is he getting _any_ better?" Ruby asked when she got there, 'Cause, I don't want to sound mean, buuuuuuuuuut…"

"Not really, no," the redhead admitted after a moment. "I'm not exactly sure how to handle this situation."

"He's going to get you killed." Weiss countered their looks with a shrug of dismissal. "I'm not wrong and you all know it."

"Look, just can it already, would you? We need all the help we can get for the combat trial." Even Yang struggled to find the silver lining of this particular cloud, though. "We still have a few days. He just… needs a little more time."

"Ruby," Pyrrha mumbled.

The girl leaned forward to hear her better. "Yeah?"

Pyrrha's countenance darkened with the reality of their problem. "I can't entirely disagree with Weiss. We might need your help."

"Ohhh. Uh, right. Okay." Ruby looked toward her teammates. "Guys?"

Of course Yang was on board. "We've got your back," she assured them through a smile.

"Yes, yes, I'll be happy to bail you out." Weiss viewed it as a chance for Pyrrha to owe her a favor to be called in later, though her smile dripped false charm to cover that fact. "I mean, we'll be happy to bail you out."

Blake, light smile and all, made it unanimous. "If we're going to succeed, we all have to work together. I'm in."

"Thank you all, really." Pyrrha looked toward Nora and Ren. "I'm sorry about the extra weight on your shoulders. I had no idea he would be this, ah, green."

"Green? He's not a plant," Nora joked, if only to stop herself from entertaining a worst-case scenario about their imminent trial. "We'll manage. Ren and I have been through worse by ourselves. We've got all of you guys now! It'll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine."

"It is nice to have friends," he added quietly.

"I'll help too!" chirped a girl who managed to sneak up on all seven of them from behind. Like Nora, her hair was orange, but styled with more of a bob cut. A crooked pink bow was stuck to the back her head. Her eyes were spring green. Beige tones dominated her outfit — her puffy-sleeved blouse and odd overall-style skirt were this color — though she wore black leggings with green trim that seemed to meld with her black shoes. A gorget of the same colors wrapped around her neck. She flashed a huge smile as they whirled on her in various states of shock. It faded apologetically a second later. "Oh, sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I thought I'd come offer my support."

"Oh, that's nice of you." Ruby matched the stranger's smile. "Who are you, by the way? I've seen you around, but..."

"Penny Polendina! I'm an exchange student from Atlas." She waved with both hands, beaming all the while.

Her expression proved infectious; all of them had on some kind of smile now, even Ren. Ruby decided to handle introductions. "Penny. Gotcha. I'm—"

Her effort wasn't necessary. "You're Ruby, that's Yang, there's Weiss and Blake, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, and the boy Pyrrha was fighting is named Jaune!" She regarded their confused looks with an awkward stare. "Oh, sorry. I like to learn people's names beforehand so it's easier to become their friend later."

"That's adorable," Yang said, unable to suppress her grin. "What can you do? I don't think I've seen you fight in here yet."

"Ooo!" Penny reached into a small satchel on her back and produced an incomprehensible, folded object that matched the color motif of her leggings. One tap of a green, circular mark on the device deployed it into a sword. "I usually just throw these at the enemy until they stop moving. Works every time!"

"Cool!" Ruby squealed with delight. She held out her hands to examine it further. "Show me show me show me!" The moment Penny relinquished it into her grasp, her analytical eye went to work. "It's so light… I see fold lines in the edge. Can't be iron or steel. Doesn't even really look like metal? It's so weird, I don't feel like I'm even holding anything."

"It's not just metal," Penny explained. She retrieved her blade and stowed it. "But the technology is proprietary at the moment, so I can't say too much. I can't wait to test it on the Grimm in a few days!" Their looks betrayed the fact that she might be the only one actually looking forward to the trial. "Oh, right. I guess I should take things a little more seriously."

"Ahhh, it's fine." Yang lounged awkwardly backward across the bleachers with her eyes on the ceiling. "Professor Goodwitch wasn't kidding about hitting the ground running, though. We didn't have our first field trial at Signal for like, two months."

"Two and a half for me," Ruby added. "Let's just calm down and hammer out a plan." She hunched over in thought and ignored Nora's snicker. "Lessee. I'm fast, Weiss can make _everyone_ fast, and Blake is fast and confusing…"

Yang couldn't resist another joke to lighten the mood. "Peh, all you crazy kids with your speed Semblances. Back in _my_ day we'd just punch all of our problems. Like men!"

Ruby eyed her for her outburst, but pressed on with strategy. "We could try to scout for you guys," she said to Pyrrha. "There's a lot of power on your team, but you're not very quick." Her eyes went to Ren. "I mean, besides you, but that's kinda relative."

"Ren won't be able to go far. I fear he may need to hide Jaune for most of the fight," Pyrrha said after a moment of thought. "I know he'll be nervous. If the Grimm catch wind of it, then..."

"He doesn't have enough Aura to hide Jaune for _that_ long."

Nora's comment about Aura brought Pyrrha's mind back to the strange courier, if only for a moment. She discarded the thought in order to get back to strategy. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Ugh. I'm going to be spending a _lot_ of time in the meditation hall this week, that's for certain."

"It would be nice if we knew exactly where they planned to deploy us," Penny remarked with a tiny frown. "Besides some random spot in the Emerald Forest." She looked up as a fat red butterfly landed on her shoulder. "A Valesian berrywing!" It fluttered away when she tried to touch it. "No, wait! Come back! I want to show you to Ciel!"

The seven of them watched her pursue her insect quarry through the stands for a few seconds. "She certainly reminds me of someone," Weiss stated, eyes affixed to Ruby.

"Excuse you. I chased a hummingbird and hummingbirds are the best," Ruby huffed, her arms folded loosely.

"Guys, guys, come on." Yang hauled herself upright and grinned. "We're worrying too much. It's the first week. They have to limit our Grimm exposure. We kill, like, three of 'em and we're good. Probably."

This served to brighten the mood, at least a little. "Hm, you do have a point," Pyrrha said. "I just want everyone to be as ready as possible."

"That's our leader!" Nora issued a heavy clap on the redhead's back, so potent that she actually grunted. "Honestly, if it goes sideways, just hit me with some electric Dust. I'll do the rest."

"Ooo, that's a good idea. I'll load some case rounds with powder so they'll pop when they hit your Aura." Ruby's fingers danced wildly as she wrote a reminder on her Scroll. "'Make a zappy mag for Nora'. Got it. I hope we're close enough in the forest to help each other."

"Yeah, yeah. You know what? I'm tired of talking," Yang said as she rose to her feet. She stretched as well, her eyes on the crowd in search of a potential sparring partner. Penny bounced past, still in pursuit of the red butterfly. "Hey, _you_ wanna fight me? You look pretty energetic."

Yang's words went completely unnoticed. "Come back, floaty friend!" she called to the insect, her chase taking her clear out of the arena.

"Guess not." The blonde surveyed the meager crowd for another opponent and sighed.

Penny encountered more than a butterfly outside, however — she almost ran smack into a bronze-skinned girl in a blue beret. "Oh, Ciel!" she greeted happily. "I wanted to show you this—"

Ciel rolled her blue eyes and took Penny by the hand. "Butterfly? Of course. I'm pretty sure you've introduced me to every single individual bug in the forest at this point."

"You are too uptight." She accepted the black and green umbrella Ciel offered her, though popping it open took a few seconds. "Take a moment to appreciate nature!"

"I don't have the time when I'm busy searching for you all day." Ciel sneaked a glance at the watch on her gloved left wrist. "Two hours. Ridiculous."

"Oh, relax. I was in the arena with our new friends!"

Again, Ciel's eyes rolled. "None of these people are friends, Penny."

"Some of them are, they just don't know it yet." Her cheeks puffed with irritation for a moment, although her voice got quiet as they walked further. "Besides, it's a nice way to learn about the students. Information is information."

This little admission put a slight smile on her bronze face. "Do tell."

"Well…" Penny tapped at her chin with a finger, unsure which detail to bring up first. One thing stuck out at last. "Ruby Rose's eyes are silver. I've never seen any that color before."

* * *

Opher had come to realize that the size of Indigo's shop belied the number of shoppers it actually got. While the average person only seemed to buy three or four items, sheer volume more than made up for it. He rang up the fifteenth such customer this morning with what little polite decorum he could manage and sent them on their way. "I'm not gonna lie, I didn't expect this place to move so much Dust," he said after the woman had left.

"I wouldn't be part of the SDC network if I didn't shift product, new guy." Indigo, off to his right and leaned against the wall of the storage room, ostensibly deep in thought, snickered for a moment. "This is why I fought so hard to get a zoning permit in a residential area. People like convenience, especially when they only need to grab a few crystals to water their plants or feed their climate control units. I live offa that market."

He issued a dull "Huh," and nothing else.

Indigo glared at his back. The dreary weather wasn't doing any favors for her mood either, but she'd watched him languish at work ever since he got back from Beacon Academy. She continued to camp against the wall, daring him to point out her lack of effort. He didn't; then again, Indigo wasn't up to confronting him at the moment, either. Yet even after only a week and a bit's worth of experience, she couldn't shake the notion that _something_ was off with her new employee.

The stalemate dragged on until he finally sneaked a glance at her over his right shoulder. "What the hell are you even doing over there? You've been standing around all morning while I do all the work."

Finally! "Oh, are we feeling a little more spry?" She grinned at him, mock-drunk on her power as his boss. "Anyway, I'm thinking of a new slogan for the shop, minion. Get back to work."

He dismissively flicked the brim of his hat and turned back around. "I'm going to overthrow you. As in literally throw you over something."

"Oooo, that's brave coming from someone within easy kick distance." Indigo reluctantly stowed the banter as more customers arrived. "Welcome!"

This new presence took the form of a young man and a female child — the first little one Opher had seen enter the shop — who couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old. A cursory glance said they were related — she definitely had his eyes. "Hello, hello," the man greeted upon reaching the counter. "I was wondering what you'd suggest for a Huntress just starting out?"

"Oho, is that right?" Indigo skittered over to pat the cheerful girl on the head. "Let me think…" She wandered through the shelves. "Is our future hero going to Lighthouse or Semaphore?"

"Semaphore!" the girl replied. "In two weeks!"

"Lucky you." Indigo plucked two fancy boxes of tiny Dust crystals from the racks and showed them to the father. "I ordered these based specifically off of Semaphore's entrance guidelines. She can have one to check out now, then another to carry with her to school."

"Perfect!" he replied, already in the process of searching for a Lien card.

Opher eyeballed him all the way up until they made eye contact again. Once the purchase was concluded, he took his daughter's hand and led her toward the door. "Thank you for the help!" he called, then added lowly, "Let's go get some ice cream, Jasmine. Whatever flavor you want!"

"Yay!"

No fuzzy feelings were left in their wake. A dour Opher folded his arms loosely. "Is it just me, or was he…"

"He's about to get exiled. Her mother, too, if she still has one."

That conclusion wasn't even close to the one he'd reached. Opher dropped his arms and looked over at Indigo, who abruptly refused to meet his gaze. "What? How do you know?" While he knew of the concept from his time as a ghost on the outskirts of Atlas, this was the first time he'd heard it mentioned by someone in a Kingdom.

"Semaphore Academy is a boarding school on Patch. Lighthouse Academy is just over in the Government District." As soon as she ran out of words, Indigo carried out the measured, rhythmic breaths of one of the dozens of exercises she knew to keep calm. The sight of that little girl's face brought with it a torrent of ghosts. Unwanted, inescapable memories trampled through her mind's eye.

"Do you wanna… talk about it?" Opher asked, aware something was wrong but not exactly what.

"I'm fine." Yet she breathed on, eyes tightly shut.

"You are anything _but_ fine."

She had to turn the tables on him before it was too late. "Sure… but you first. You've been a little quiet since you got back from Beacon. Why?" Indigo faced him, determined to change the subject to his problems so she could forget hers. "Did you break something? Am I about to get a nasty letter from that hardass Glynda Goodwitch?"

A steely-eyed Opher called her bluff almost before the rant concluded. "No, and… okay, you've got a deal."

Indigo's voice went sideways in her throat. She took a step back. "Wait… really?"

Now he was the one leaned up against the storage room wall. "I'm not sure how to explain this, but, uh…" It wasn't the awkward details he needed to exclude that were his struggle — far, far too many years of practice ensured their secrecy — but how best to frame his problem so Indigo would understand. The solution was as simple as it was brilliant: he'd frame it with _her_. "You look a lot like my mom, you know."

"What."

He grinned at her confusion for just a moment. "It's relevant, I promise. Have you ever heard the word _doppelganger_ before?"

At long last, her face began to soften. "Yeah. Old Atlesian. What about it?"

"Well." Opher put both hands behind his head and frowned. "I saw someone on campus that…" Expelling the rest of this thought proved immensely difficult for several seconds. "...that reminds me of one of the reasons I left Atlas."

Indigo recalled some of his first words to her with a nod. "One of the faces you've been seeing."

Unlike her, Opher had no fear of holding onto the misery that tightened his chest. "Yeah. It startled me how much they look alike. I still can't believe it."

Indigo tugged lightly at her ponytail before she walked over and patted him on the back. "They weren't, uh, they weren't a student, were they?"

"Yes. She was one of the freshmen that got supplies from us." Opher blinked down at her sullen face. "Why?"

"Uhh…" Once more, eye contact with her employee was beyond Indigo's reach. "Can I be straight with you?"

"I'd appreciate it."

"The survival rate of Academy students, it's—" Indigo swallowed _hard_ to steady her nerves. "Not great. You saw some kids that day that you probably won't see again." He didn't speak, so she continued on. "It's just how the system works. They don't get the same kind of—" This statement proved too uncomfortable to finish. He didn't deserve to share its burden anyway. "Forget it. They do the best they can, but the Grimm… they're just relentless."

"I know." The look in his glassy green eyes would have rattled Indigo's bones had she turned to see it. For less than an instant his brain entertained the concept of worry, but he knew this girl's name and not much more; fear for a stranger was an ill use of his time — even if he had far too much of it to waste. "Hmm."

Indigo could no longer avoid eye contact and turned to face him. "What?"

"I'm just thinking. It's fine." That flash of concern had long made room for curiosity. If the redhead lived through this first test, _then_ he'd have a reason to let himself wonder. Far too many meaningless sunrises had come and gone since that particular emotion last visited his heart. Then again, if she did die, at least he only saw her once.

Indigo's head cocked a bit. "Can I ask you something, then?" He only shrugged acquiescence in response. "Which student?"

Pyrrha's mild celebrity status posed a problem, so Opher decided it wasn't his employer's business for now. "Does it matter?" And he truly embraced that sentiment. It didn't matter.

Not even if she had that precious, painful face.

* * *

Time slipped by for those at Beacon, nervous hours which stretched into anxious days. Forty-six freshman students gathered in the auditorium before dawn. With them came the antsy chatter of anticipation. Glynda, the master of ceremonies, rapped her crop against the microphone stand to bring peace. "Attention, attention. I know you're all itching for a fight." Penny, somewhere in the jittery throng, threw her hands up with a cheer. "Some more than others, clearly. But we have some things to go over first. Scrolls out, please."

At last, the students fell quiet and obeyed, withdrawing their devices from all manner of satchels, packs, or pockets.

"Thank you. The combat trial will proceed as follows: each team will be assigned a one kilometer by one kilometer grid square in the Emerald Forest outside of the Academy campus. You have two hours to clear that area of Grimm, be there one monster or a hundred, and then keep it clear until you are retrieved. How you do this is _entirely_ up to you. If your sector is empty and remains so, you may move to assist other teams nearby within a one-square radius. Do try to keep your wandering to _one_ square, however. It becomes quite hard for us to keep track of you all if you're strewn across the entire forest."

Ruby, near the back with her team and Pyrrha's, gave the tall redhead a silent thumbs up. Her gesture wasn't the only show of support exchanged between students; people had been making deals with each other for over a week.

Glynda pressed on. "Being a Hunter is a life-long lesson in flexibility. We will _not_ advise you on what constitutes a passing grade beforehand. You must expect, and be ready to face, anything. That said… your safe return is paramount. We will have faculty assigned to sections to assist you for this trial, but remember that they will need time to reach you if you send a distress signal."

Pyrrha's squad, most especially Jaune, sighed with relief. "See, I told you," Nora whispered to the lanky blonde. "It'll be fine. Nooooo problem."

"Professor Ozpin and myself will be monitoring your progress from here. I suppose that about covers it." Glynda's face was stone, yet her eyes glittered with an emotion which none of the students could adequately describe. She adjusted her glasses and looked away. "Proceed to the airship pads. Two squads per ship. Good luck, students."

"Let's fuckin' do this!" Yang hollered at the top of her lungs. Every smack on the arm she endured from Ruby as they walked out was worth it for the shouted agreement from some of her peers. "We're riding together, right?" she asked with a wave over toward Pyrrha.

"Absolutely," she confirmed. "Ah… I already feel better about this whole thing." Her eyes went to the starry sky overhead. "It's a beautiful morning, isn't it?"

Jaune cast his blue eyes across the diamond blanket and smiled. "Yeah. You can see a lot more stars out here than in the city."

Ruby's mind wandered elsewhere. "I've never actually done a combat drop before. How high up are we gonna be?" she asked Yang, who had experience with the issue from her longer time at Signal.

The blonde stroked her locks in thought. "Uhhh, it's like five meters. Tuck and roll if you're worried."

"Tuck and roll? Please." Weiss allowed herself a self-satisfied grin as they boarded their Bullhead for the ride into the forest. "I'll be happy to get us all down."

"Aw, what a sweetheart! I was wrong about you."

She ignored Yang's affectionate tone, but kept on grinning; there was very little altruism in her offer. The easier things were for these idiots, the easier they'd be for her.

The Bullhead's engines precluded any further chatter even after the doors were shut, so the eight of them all stewed quietly. While the most combat-experienced of the group busied themselves with the loading of their weapons or the movement of Dust to more convenient pockets, those like Jaune and even Blake looked to their companions to figure out how to feel. The craft banked gently right, then left — once it finally straightened out, Ruby felt spry enough to talk. "Ah, man, I wish I ate before we left."

"Oh." Yang produced a packet of something from one of the many pouches on her belt. "Try this."

It was a granola bar — food she was a fan of, indeed — but one look at the package dissuaded her. "Ugh, blueberry?"

Yang shook her head at the denial, snickering lowly. "Picky, picky, picky." They all looked around as the airship slowed and lost altitude. The red light above the door suddenly turned green. "Forget it," she added. "It's time."

"Ruby Rose," said the pilot over the intercom, "deploy your team."

"Copy!" She looked down as the doors opened; the forest was a lot further down than Yang's prediction. "Wow?"

"I'll lead the way." Weiss, rapier in hand, performed a hand motion and discharged a fuzzy gray disk of light that hovered just beyond the Bullhead's open doors. "All at once. I need to save as much Aura as possible."

"Oh no I hate these they feel so weird…" Ruby threw one last smile at Pyrrha and her squad. "See you guys in a little while!"

"Good luck!" Pyrrha called. "Whoever clears their square last buys breakfast?"

"You're on, sister!" Ruby waved her team forward. They alighted on Weiss' Glyph as one. There was nothing solid about it — these were just highly electromagnetic fluctuations, after all — but their inverse charge repelled each girl's natural Aura and slowed their momentum to a crawl. They fell like snowflakes. Weiss dropped another Glyph directly below, then another, until their feet gently touched the grassy soil.

Ruby shook off the residual charge like a dog and huffed. "Tingly." They set off into the trees while Yang brushed her hair back under control. "And that's why I keep mine cut."

"She does look a little fluffier than usual," Blake noted wryly — although her own hair now had a visible frizz as well.

"Y'all just jealous of my _majestic_ locks."

The ice princess rolled her blue eyes and took up the rear of their formation. "You're all welcome." She watched their airship lumber north through the tree branches until it went out of sight.

Ruby gazed at the map on her Scroll for information as they pressed into the forest. It had been updated with the borders of their designated square. "We're in the southwest corner."

"Yeah. We could work diagonally." Yang glanced up as dawn began to light the western sky. "Or hug the line. We've got time to decide. Wanna wait for some light?"

Weiss chose to peer into the forest, using every trick in her mental book to keep her nerves steady. "I'd rather get this over with now."

"I'm with Weiss, to be honest. We need to clear our square quick so we can help other teams." Ruby carefully led their formation through the undergrowth.

"Have they even been deployed yet?" Blake asked.

Yang waved her folded Scroll at the girl. "Our Scrolls should tell us once all the drops are finished. That's how we did it at Signal."

"Oh, all right." The Faunus decided to get a better handle on the terrain with a look at the map on her own device. Two small creeks twisted their way through the center of the grid square. "Streams. Do we try to clear one bank at a time?" While she did a better job of masking her own anxiety, there was no less of it in her chest than roiled in Weiss'. Her fingers trembled subtly.

"Huh, that's not a terrible—" Ruby fell silent as her left hand snapped up. They all came to an immediate halt and looked in the same direction she did. Her voice returned as a whisper. "Targets, ten o'clock in the clearing. Boarbatusks. Mature. Looks like two."

"Armored," Yang confirmed. She gave her sister the room to quietly unfold her pride and joy. "What's in your clip?"

"Didn't want to load one until I knew what I was gonna shoot at." Ruby produced a red magazine from a pocket on the underside of her cloak, held it briefly to her chest so her Aura could prime the rounds, and snapped it into Crescent Rose's empty well. "Okay. AP, capped. Fire Dust charge."

"I still can't believe you actually built that gaudy thing," Weiss muttered, masking her own unease with low-grade disdain — although the relaxed way which Yang and Ruby spoke to each other helped settle her mind. "Shall we?"

Ruby shook her head once. "They might be the front end of something worse. Blake?"

"On it." She put her excellent vision to work and moved ahead to scout. The Grimm looked up toward Weiss' and Blake's nervousness and began to close the distance slowly as she darted around their left sides. A discharge of her Semblance caught the monsters' attention; to the rest of her team, it looked like a shadowy clone of the Faunus, but to the Grimm it _felt_ like a potent burst of negativity. They charged it down with a cascade of grunts but found nothing. Blake now had their rear and took advantage. She dropped two ice Dust crystals on the ground between the beasts as they turned upon detecting her nervousness, then used her Semblance to set them off and boost out of harm's way at the same time. They were left impaled on a jagged frost sculpture as she walked back to the others. "I didn't see anything, but if they're out there—"

"Yeah. They'll come running toward the Dust trigger." Yang's ears detected a distant rustle from their right side. "Oh yeah. I hear 'em. Right side." All four of them lined up to face the threat. In less than a minute it arrived, skittering through the trees in the form of a horde of immature Creeps. While they lacked the impressive armor of the Boarbatusks, these two-legged reptilian nightmares were far more agile. The blonde's fists went up with a grin. "Let's split 'em down the middle." She glanced back to find Ruby already safely up in a tree to snipe; with her out of harm's way, the blonde threw herself at the horde with Blake and Weiss in support. Every time she launched a fist, a Grimm shattered across her knuckles with a metallic sound — her hands were reinforced with iron concentrated by her Aura. "Buffet's open! Knuckle sandwiches for everyone!" the blonde hooted with glee.

To Yang's left, Blake was content to herd the little monsters like sheep by using her nerves as bait. Every time she deposited a clone, the Creeps nearest it would peel away from their attack on Yang and fall upon her murky copy instead. All they would find on arrival was a primed Dust crystal to end their existences. Any monster that got too close first ate a pistol bullet for their effort, then a downward swipe of the variable blade attached to Blake's firearm as she Semblance-dashed toward the next target. She twirled like a dancer through their murderous dozens.

Weiss proved less adept at the management of her own adrenaline. There were more Grimm present than she'd ever tried to fight simultaneously at any point during her training; that lack of experience showed in the way she managed her Aura reserves — she didn't. Every squirming beast found themselves at the business end of a Semblance-enhanced rapier thrust as she bounced among them, a ponytailed pinball determined to keep Yang's right side as trouble-free as possible.

"Work smart, not hard, Weiss!" the blonde called, able to see the girl's inexperience even through the chaos of her own fight. Another Creep fragmented noisily across her iron fist while she spoke. "We just got started! Save your Aura!"

"I'm—!" No retort could shove its way through her frantic breaths as more of the beasts arrived. Yang was right. She needed other options as a dozen of the speedy Grimm latched onto her panic and charged to feed. One desperate swing of her blade emitted a titanic arc of flame that caught those monsters — and several trees behind them — on fire. "Get away from me!" she shrieked. A tinny roar stabbed her ears as one of the Grimm, despite being engulfed in flames, rushed closer. As Weiss threw her arms up in self-defense, a bullet from above her head tore the left side of its skull clean off and sent it into the ground.

"Weiss, relax!" Ruby shouted from her tree. She tugged the charging handle of her weapon to load a fresh round. "They're gonna focus you down! You're not alone out here."

Blake arrived at her side a moment later. "Listen," she began, one hand on Weiss' arm, "I'm just as nervous as you are. Let's make them chase us. We're faster. Yang and Ruby can clean them up from behind."

"O-okay?" She pursued as Blake ran. While the Faunus continued to lay Dust-mined clones in her wake, Weiss subtly flicked a switch on her rapier to slowly release the ice Dust powder within its chambers and dragged the tip of her sword through the grass. Jagged lances of ice sprouted in the gouge; combined with her zig-zag path through the trees, every Creep on their heels tumbled and rolled as their limbs caught on the frozen obstacle. Grimm left vulnerable on their bellies received a bullet from Ruby or a shotgun-assisted punch from Yang, who chased both monster and teammate as best she could.

"Slow down!" the blonde joked. She whipped belts of shells into her hungry gauntlets with unnecessary flourish and pointed her hands backward. These rounds were _highly_ explosive, as proven by the way the recoil launched Yang ahead. Her downward arc added lovely momentum to a few punches as she continued to thin the abyssal horde. Soon, the Creeps were down to a single digit number, though no less feral and enraged as their now-vaporized kin. Blake and Weiss doubled back on Yang as Ruby's bullets picked off the last monsters. "You two!" she greeted them as they came to a stop. "That was fuckin' _hot_!" A glance over her shoulder at the still-burning trees made her wince a little. "In more ways than one."

Both girls continued to quake in their boots under the thrall of their adrenaline even now that the field was clear. Ruby dropped from her tree and sprinted over to meet them. "You guys were amazing!" she chirped through a huge grin. "I guess you weren't lying about your training, huh? You already fight better than some of the kids that were in my class at Signal last year."

Blake had finally allowed her agitation to get the best of her. "I—I had good teachers," she stammered weakly. "I didn't expect them to swarm like this… I don't…"

Yang firmly planted her hands on the girl's shoulders. "Oi. Look at me." She said nothing else until those yellow eyes were planted on her goofy smile. "You're fine. You did really well. Breathe a second." Again, she remained silent until Blake made effort to regulate her breaths. "That's it."

To their right, Weiss squirmed miserably, staggered to the point of relying on her rapier to help keep her upright. Her entire body remained numb from the fiery high of combat. "Gods above," she wheezed, "I've never fought that many at once—there were dozens of—we have to clear a square kilometer of—" She tensed up when Ruby hugged her tightly from behind. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"Weiss." Ruby squeezed until the girl in her grasp started to wiggle against the touch instead of writhe under her own terror. "Weiss…"

"You capricious twit, let go of me!" Ruby didn't, and she had no more strength to fight. Weiss finally accepted the hug with a tremendous release of breath. "You smell like cookie dough."

"I might have some on me. Anyone hungry?"

Blake had become calm enough to accept her humor. "Aren't you supposed to keep it refrigerated?"

"It's encased in ice Dust powder, so it's _probably_ fine. I mean, I might need that Dust to put out the fire over here, but, uhhhh..." Ruby released Weiss at last and stepped back when she turned around. "Hi! You were super cool. Maybe even _ice cold_." Her eyebrows waggled. "Get it? Get it?" When Weiss failed to chuckle, or even smile, her silver eyes went to Yang. "Why do people laugh at you but not at me—"

Yang didn't get the chance to explain. Rhythmic vibrations rattled the soles of their shoes — footsteps, and big ones at that. A gigantic bipedal canid creature tore through the smoke of the forest fire; its skin was as replete with armored spikes as its open mouth was with teeth. It roared at the sight of them and thundered forward for the kill. Before anyone else could react — even her sister — Ruby snapped Crescent Rose into its war scythe form as she loaded a different clip of ammunition. She dashed toward the Beowulf as a barely-coherent crimson smear under the force of her Semblance. Yang grabbed Weiss and Blake with one hand each and threw them to the ground as she went prone herself, fully aware of Ruby's plan.

She threw the weapon at it, but on its way out of her right hand she twirled under the influence of her power, flicked back the charging handle with her left hand, and fired the gun to add even more momentum. The Beowulf, on all fours and mouth open as it ran toward her, took the full impact of her makeshift spear all the way to the back of its throat. The beast tumbled into a heap and rolled for several meters until it came to rest at her feet, belly up, with Crescent Rose still jutting from its open maw. Ruby drove her boot into the creature's snout as she tried to yank it free, but her eyes were on her teammates all the while. "Did I hit anyone?" she called to Yang. "I didn't have time to yell. Sorry."

"Nah, we're fine." The blonde derived a significant amount of amusement from the expressions on the other girls' faces as they all stood up. "And now you know why they skipped her ahead a year," she added lowly.

"Seriously, we should probably try to put this—" An adorable grunt and some terrific effort finally released Crescent Rose from its slowly-dissolving Grimm prison, "—this fire out." Ruby switched magazines yet again, this time for one with a stylized water droplet on its side — an icon she'd hand-drawn. "My airburst rounds probably aren't gonna do it."

"Well…" It _was_ her fault, after all, so Weiss stepped forward and fiddled with the rotary mechanism of her rapier. One graceful slash unleashed a significant-enough torrent of water to knock the flames out of the trees. Only hazy gray smoke remained. She dropped to a knee a moment later. "Ohhhhhh."

"Yo, what happened?" Yang asked as she and Blake helped the girl back onto both feet. A pale blue flicker encompassed Weiss' form — now, even for the blonde, all jokes and smiles ceased. "Fuck, she's broken. Aura check?"

All four of them had their Scrolls in hand a moment later. "Full, basically," Ruby advised.

"Eighty percent, at least," Yang replied.

"Um…" Blake's gauge wasn't close to capacity; it displayed a lemon yellow shade instead of the green of Yang and Ruby's gauges. "Forty percent. Maybe a little less."

But Weiss was in by far the worst shape. Her gauge flashed red. "...five percent. If that."

Ruby folded her weapon up and allowed it to latch magnetically to the hardpoint on the back of her dress. Concern wracked her features as she moved closer. "Why didn't you set an alarm tone?!"

"I didn't think I'd need one." Despite exhaustion that soaked into the marrow of her bones, the ice princess made every effort to maintain her lofty dignity. She got as far as attaching her rapier to her belt before her knees failed again.

"You two sit." Ruby scanned the treeline for threats as the light of dawn continued to increase. "We'll guard the perimeter so you can rest for a second." The distant sounds of gunfire, of the clash of metal and bone, and, after a few moments, screams, reached their ears. "I guess all the deployments must be done…"

"Yeah." Yang, on watch at Weiss' and Blake's rear, didn't need to see her sister to know what occupied her thoughts. "Ruby, we don't know where they were dropped. We haven't even cleared our own AO yet."

"I'm just looking." Frantic swipes at the screen of her device brought awful news: Pyrrha's squad had ended up two blocks east and out of officially-sanctioned assistance range. "Oh no. They're two sectors away."

"Let's cross that bridge when we get there. We've only been active for thirty minutes. We got time." Yang sneaked a glance back at her weary teammates and finally allowed herself a frown. "And I feel like we're gonna need it."

Both Weiss and Blake, seated cross-legged with their eyes shut, were currently engaged in the type of meditation designed to help speed Aura recovery. Their persistent nervousness blunted the process. Weiss, especially, continued to struggle with her tension. "How many Grimm do you think are in this sector?" she asked after a few quiet moments, unable to center her mind on the act of relaxation. "I feel like we just killed a hundred of them."

"I dunno." Ruby flipped her Scroll shut and gazed toward the loudest sounds of battle — these came from the north. "But if the rest of the AO is anything like ours, a whole lot of people might be in trouble." She winced as a clap of thunder rang out some distance from their right. "Thunder? The sky's clear. What's going on over there?"

* * *

Not what, but whom. Nora, a crazy smile plastered across her face, crackled with pinkish electricity as she set off another small electric Dust crystal and soaked up its effects. So charged, the swings of her silvery war hammer flew as thunderbolts that split the air. Those blows struck with volcanic fury, able to crack even the thick carapace of the Death Stalker with which they were engaged. Their sector, unlike Ruby's, featured only occasional stands of trees and was mostly open space — while this meant more room to fight, it also meant bigger monsters were present. While the black scorpion had been wounded, it continued to fight, with claws and tail alike constantly jabbed toward its would-be prey. Since the spry girl was its current focus, her male partners played a game off to its side. Ren deactivated his Semblance — which currently hid an utterly terrified Jaune — at random moments and let the monster get distracted by Jaune's fear. Whenever it turned to eat him instead, Ren made him disappear so Nora and Pyrrha could take their shots while the beast lumbered back into position to defend against them.

Another such combo was halfway done already. "Upper thorax!" Nora yelled at her redheaded buddy as she retreated. She expertly folded her weapon into its grenade launcher form to load it. "Hit the crack!"

"I see it!" A blackish haze briefly encompassed Pyrrha's frame; she directed the power of her magnetic Semblance into the round hoplite shield in her left hand and fired it toward the gap. It whistled through the twilight with such force that it knocked a chunk of the weakened carapace off upon impact. The beast howled with anger as she guided the shield back into her grasp. "It's hurt! Let's finish this!"

Nora unloaded a full belt of grenades at the wider gap Pyrrha had made, each one producing a sharp crack and a puff of hot pink smoke upon detonation. Her rounds managed to compromise the majority of the beast's armor. "Ren, bring him around! I need you in front!"

Jaune didn't much care for the plan and let them know it as Ren tugged him into place ahead of the unhappy Grimm. "Do I get a say in this?!"

"Calm down, skinny boy! Actually, don't." Her eyes went to Pyrrha as she unfolded her weapon back into a hammer. "Throw me! Straight up!"

The redhead nodded and redirected her Semblance yet again. "Okay!"

"Ren! Show him the bait!" Nora yelled, crouched in preparation to fly.

Jaune's arms flailed with panic. "No, don't show him the bait! Never show him the bait!"

The Death Stalker turned on his position the instant Ren's hands left Jaune's shoulders, tail up and ready to strike. Nora launched skyward, dragged by Pyrrha's influence on her hammer until the redhead could no longer push it. Then she fell, hammer cocked back, tugged both by Pyrrha when she got back into range and by the gravity of Remnant. The face of her weapon struck the golden stinger of the monster's tail just as it tried to sting Jaune. It went into the beast's head instead, dispatching it instantly.

The rest of Nora landed with a metallic clank as her Aura concentrated iron in her skin to absorb her collision. "Oof!" she blurted out, rolling over onto her butt on top of the dead monster with a cocky grin. "Aw, man. I think I broke it."

"Yes! Yes you did!" Jaune, hands on his knees, tried to catch his breath as Ren once again masked his emotions. "Can we try a different plan now? One that isn't basically 'let Grimm chase me while you guys kill them'?" His will to complain subsided after Pyrrha came over and gave him a hug. "Oh. Uh, hi."

"I'm sorry," she said with a pat on the back. "I wouldn't have gone along with the idea if there had been more than one Grimm. You did a fantastic job." A look around after she withdrew indicated that they might have run out of enemies. While she couldn't speak for action beyond the thick treeline — whose echoed noise they clearly heard — their little plain seemed empty. "Are we done?" she asked her crew. "This seems a little _too_ easy."

"There's never just one," a bored Nora advised. She twirled her hammer like a baton and skipped away from the others. "Especially with tall, blonde, and jumpy over here. Besides, after all the Dust we just set off, every Grimm on the continent knows where we are by now." The grin on her face indicated just how little she cared about that prospect.

Pyrrha's brow furrowed a bit. "True. Aura check, please." Her own Scroll indicated no problems. "Ninety-five percent here."

"Uh, a hundred percent," Jaune replied, still uneasy from his jaunt as Grimm attractant. "And I'd really like to keep it that way."

"Eighty-eight point seven percent!" Nora chirped. Her more exact number made both Jaune and Pyrrha tilt their heads. "Maaaaan, I've been wearing a Scroll since I was eight. I know what every pixel in these gauges means. Ren does too!" Her eyes went to him for an update. "Well? How's yours?"

The look on his face said it before his mouth could. "Thirty-three." He showed them the screen for emphasis.

All the playfulness abruptly left Nora's face. "You spent almost seventy percent helping us kill _one_ Death Stalker?!"

"Jaune's emotions were rather intense," he explained, serenity incarnate despite the situation.

He said nothing more, but didn't need to; Nora became his spokeswoman. "Yeah, um, no, we need a new plan _right now_. I told you he couldn't keep this up for long, but oh my goodness."

Pyrrha watched Jaune collect his sword and shield from the grass as she tried to compile a different battle strategy. "How fast can he try to recharge?" she asked a moment later, unable to figure out something off the top of her head while the adrenaline still flowed so freely in her veins.

All Ren had to do was shake his head at Nora. She translated afterward. "Not very. I mean, he's good for fifteen percent an hour in, like, ideal settings, but this isn't anywhere close to ideal."

"I see." The redhead stroked her chin once with unusually shaky fingers. "Let's walk our sector for a moment and figure out what we know. As long as we keep calm, we have the upper hand."

Of course their eyes all went to Jaune after she spoke. He regarded their gazes with slight irritation. "I'm good. Unless you plan on using me as bait again."

Pyrrha rubbed the back of her neck with an awkward smile. "No, no, we've done enough of that. You did very well considering this was your first ever fight against Grimm."

"That's true," Nora agreed. "I honestly just expected you to pass out."

Anger flashed across Jaune's face before self-realization chased it away. "I… guess I did too." He finally managed to sheath his blade into the slot on the back of the heater shield and placed the whole construction on his belt. "Okay. Let's go."

They chose to walk the southern border of their sector first. Coniferous forest lined this section of the little plain; through the trees they heard the cacophony of a severe battle but could see no part of it. Automatic gunfire dominated the noise. "Wow, sounds like an Army exercise," Nora pointed out. "You don't spend that much ammo unless you're losing."

"Should we go see what's going on?" Jaune asked.

While some part of Pyrrha wanted to assist, her foremost obligation was to the three people beside her. "After we've made certain we're done here, perhaps. There's no point in going to help someone else if we bring the Grimm along behind us."

The din kept on as they reached the southeast corner of their area and turned north. A hundred meters along the eastern edge of their sector, however, the sound abruptly ceased, replaced by the more distant rattle of fights that were further away. "I don't know if I like that or not," Jaune admitted after a moment.

"Yes…" Pyrrha eyed her Scroll to figure out who had been dropped in that area. "Arslan Altan's team is over there."

Nora took to the performance of two-handed hammer tricks to alleviate her boredom. She spun it in her hands and tossed it over her head as they pressed on. "The rope dart girl?"

Gunfire again, but this time only one type. The previous automatic bursts were gone. It closed in as they listened. Nora instantly put herself between it and Ren, hammer at the ready, while Pyrrha moved away from the group so she'd be the first one a potential enemy would encounter. They watched as two girls burst from the treeline and sprinted west about fifty meters distant. One had dark skin, yellow hair and a loose gi of the same shade. The other wore a purple hoodie, black shorts, and bore a mop of totally uncontrolled turquoise locks. A single odd pistol-like weapon was in her left hand. In pursuit of them were four immature Death Stalkers, like the one Pyrrha's team had just beaten, with a much larger example of the beast close behind. Massive white spikes of carapace studded its base armor. Crimson smears were splattered across its claws and pedipalps.

"Reese! Over here!" the swarthy girl called. Both girls ran toward Pyrrha and her team. "Help us! We can't pierce their armor!"

The redhead stumbled back as the Grimm came thundering toward them after their terrified prey. "Arslan, no! We can't fight—"

"Screw it, run!" Nora screamed. She grabbed Ren by the collar and dragged him for dear life until his legs started to work. Her teammates fell in behind as Arslan and Reese joined their retreat.

Even as they fled, however, Jaune tried to use his own fear to split the Grimm ranks. He banked away from their group and headed left. "Are you insane?!" Reese shrieked after him.

"No, I'm bait!" It worked, to an extent; one of the immature Death Stalkers peeled away to give chase. Unfortunately, he hadn't planned any farther than this. "I've made a terrible—" His lament distorted into a scream as Pyrrha forcefully yanked him back to her side with her magnetic grip on his armor.

"Do not do that again!" she scolded him between panicked breaths. "We need to get to the trees! Together!" Her eyes bulged as Arslan fell over a stone hidden by the tall grass. "No!" To her horror, the girl had nothing metallic on her person to grab; by the time Pyrrha even considered throwing _herself_ , Arslan was already in the claws of a Death Stalker. She screamed bloody murder as the monster crushed her spine with its grasp. Only when the beast began to consume her did those wails cease.

"Arslan!" Reese refused to look back. Tears streamed freely from her eyes. Words of prayer leaked out between gasps for air. "Gods above who part the stars… holy hands who forged our world… give me strength…" Her leaden legs began to fail. "And the grace to…"

Pyrrha looked back just in time to see Reese fall to her stomach. She refused to watch her get swept up by the monster on her heels. Bones crunched loudly as the Death Stalker ingested its prey, but not once did Reese cry out in pain. "Gods help us," the redhead gasped. The treeline stood two hundred meters ahead.

"We can make it!" Jaune snapped, though his lack of breath said otherwise. "We can make it!"

They did, barely. While the stout trunks stopped the momentum of the smaller Grimm, the mature Death Stalker proved far more resilient. It snapped trees as easily as matchsticks while it chased the exhausted redhead and her team into the woods. It, however, trundled along much slower due to the weight of its armor. Its smaller brethren followed it via the path it crushed through the forest. To buy time, Pyrrha and her team weaved an irregular path through the trees until someone could figure out what to do next.

"We need help," Nora demanded weakly. She provided the motive power for herself and Ren; the boy had nothing left to give after running for his life and let his weight rest on Nora's shoulder. "We need help _now_. We need it _yesterday_."

"I know." Pyrrha already had her Scroll to her left ear. "Professor Port? Sir, it's Pyrrha Nikos. We've been driven out of sector eleven. Five Death Stalkers. We can't crack them. Two KIA _at least_ from the team in sector twelve."

"I'm sorry, Miss Nikos, but Doctor Oobleck and I are completely occupied in sector four."

That meant they were literal miles away. His words sent Pyrrha's heart into the core of the planet. "Sir, please, we're in serious danger here!" she screamed back.

"Stay calm and retreat to sector nine. Ruby Rose reports that area is clean. She still has a full squad and her rifle might be able to penetrate Death Stalker carapace."

"Sir, we can't run two full kilometers in our current condition!" The redhead looked over into the woods as immature Ursae, black bear-like Grimm with white accents, began to claw their way into view. They homed in on their terror like feral missiles. "Gods help us, there's more in the woods!"

Nora awkwardly fired grenades back at the Grimm until her supply ran out; they were effective against the Ursae, but did little damage to unblemished Death Stalker armor. With her ammo depleted and no way to reload safely, she returned her weapon to hammer form and gave up on the concept of retreat. She popped another small electric Dust crystal to feed her Semblance. It proved to be one crystal too many; her fingers suddenly went numb. The hammer almost slipped from her hands. "Uh oh, legs are mad at me." All of Nora's limbs grew shaky as her nervous system failed under the strain of too much electrical feedback.

"We're in big trouble!" Jaune said. He awkwardly picked up Nora and carried her while Ren took up the rear. In one of his hands was her hammer; in the other, one of his custom bladed pistols, which he fired at the enemy. Its rounds were useless against everything but the smallest Ursae. A hollow click rang out when his weapon, too, ran dry.

"Sir, please!" Pyrrha begged one more time. All she got in response were the sounds of Port engaged in a fight until the connection dropped. "They're not coming!" But the Grimm did, legions of umbral beasts that would never know the fatigue that deadened all of their bodies. If the teachers couldn't help them, she had only one other sure option left. Pyrrha tapped frantically at her Scroll to place another call. "Please answer, please, please, please—"

* * *

Ruby and her squad set up shop by the south bank of one of the creeks in the sector to take a much-needed break. Another thirty minutes had been spent in intermittent battles before she declared their area secure. The sisters had not just been the front line in those skirmishes — they were effectively the _only_ line. Weiss and Blake remained far in reserve, although the Faunus did her best to provide fire support with her pistol. Weiss' Aura remained too fragile to risk combat, despite her best efforts to calm down and let it recharge.

"Could have been worse," Yang admitted as they all sat on the river bank. Both of her hands were bandaged up to allow her scraped knuckles to recover. Her shotgun gauntlets rested on the grass at her right hip. "The others must be finishing up too. Got awful quiet."

Ruby idly scratched at the long cut that streaked across her left cheek. Its edges had already been healed by her Aura, but the deeper wound remained open. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure every dang Grimm in this whole forest wound up with us. Sheesh." All four of them looked toward her Scroll as it rang. "Oh, it's Pyrrha. They must be done too." She answered cheerfully. "What's up?"

"Ruby, help us! Please! We're going to be overrun!"

The bitter panic in Pyrrha's voice drove Ruby up to her feet. The look on her face got the rest of them to stand a second later. "Wh—Pyrrha, where are you? What's going on?"

"Sector eleven! We're moving toward you but we can't run forever! The teachers are all in the northeast corner of the AO and there are dozens of Grimm on us! If someone doesn't meet us in the middle, we aren't going to make it!" Some sort of gunfire prefaced and followed her words.

Ruby, propelled by sheer horror, grabbed Crescent Rose off the grassy soil and started east without a second thought. "Ruby?" Yang called after her. "Ruby! What's the problem?"

"It's Pyrrha, they're in deep!" she yelled back over her shoulder. Her next words were to the redhead. "You gotta hold on. What kind of Grimm are on you right now?"

"Five Death Stalkers, one elder, and I can't count how many Ursae! They're coming out of the trees!"

"Oh no, no no no no," she murmured as Yang, gauntlets already back on, ran up alongside. She knew full well that no ammunition in her stores could punch through an elder Death Stalker's iron shell. Yet she walked on, faster now, determined to _try_. "I'll meet you in sector ten. Just keep running!" Ruby hung up and regarded Yang with more steel in her eyes than the blonde had ever seen. "Stay with them. I'll be back directly."

"Like hell!" she snapped. Blake and Weiss were already in pursuit; they arrived in the middle of her outburst. "You're not going by yourself!"

"Don't get mad at me or you'll attract even more Grimm." Ruby's words were ice. "Just stay here so nothing happens to Blake and Weiss."

Weiss stood quietly in immense turmoil as she considered how badly she felt like playing hero. Blake had already made up her own mind. "You won't have to leave anyone to guard me if I go with you," she said. "Let Yang stay here with Weiss. I can help distract the Grimm."

"You don't have enough Aura left. You'd die trying." Ruby considered that the end of the discussion and broke into a sprint — or she would have if not for the powerful grip of her sister's hand on her arm. "Yang, let me go! I don't have time for this!"

"Absolutely fucking not!" She proved far stronger than her little sister despite the girl's anger. "Damn it, Ruby, no! You know we don't have enough firepower to crack five Death Stalkers between all four of us, much less if we split up!"

Their struggle blossomed into a full-blown argument as Ruby tried to yank her arm free. "I made them a promise! I can't let them die!"

" _I can't let you die either_!" Yang's words were forceful enough to scatter birds from the trees directly above them. All four were silent even after the echoes of her emotion were gone until she spoke again. "We made them that promise. Not just you."

And then Weiss had an idea. "All four of us can go. Blake and I can go find the team responsible for sector ten, and you two can buy Pyrrha's team some time until we all arrive."

"Who's in that sector, anyway?" Ruby quickly checked her Scroll for details. "That Penny girl! She said she'd help us." There was a problem, however. "Wait, her team is only two people?"

"If they're still alive, then they must be pretty good fighters," Yang noted. "They _are_ still alive, aren't they?"

Ruby tapped furiously at the screen for more details. "They sent an all clear for their sector right after we did! With two people? Either their area is empty, or they really kicked butt!"

"Then we could really use the help." The blonde took a moment to fully load her gauntlets with ammunition. "And if the sector is clear, then you two should be fine to hunt Penny down while we reinforce Pyrrha."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Ruby agreed, "but we need to _go_ , now. They won't last long without support."

"Then go. We'll bring help as soon as we can find it," Blake confirmed. Both girls — regardless of how inadvisable of an idea it was for Weiss — used a tiny burst of their Semblance to accelerate faster and vanished into the trees.

After they disappeared, Yang released her sister at last. "Lead the way, sis."

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed. "Gods, I hope we're not too late."

Never before had either girl tried to run so hard, so fast, for so long. Their momentum was a completely manual affair — they set off no Dust or used any Semblance in an effort to preserve as much of their precious Aura as they could for the fight ahead. The haphazard arrangement of tree trunks repeatedly thwarted their ability to build up any straight line speed. "We should have burned down the whole damn forest earlier!" a frustrated Yang gasped.

"If the trees are slowing us down, they have to be slowing down the Grimm too!" Ruby yelled in reply. "Just keep running!" The distinct report of rifle fire attracted her attention. "Ahead of us!" It came again, and again, louder each time. "They must be close!" She rearranged Crescent Rose into its rifle form; though precise aim was impossible while she remained in motion, Ruby looked down its scope anyway in hopes of seeing Pyrrha or her team.

Jaune appeared first. In his hands was Nora's weapon in grenade launcher format. Everytime he fired it, the recoil shoved him back a step or two; his inability to control the launcher meant grenades went everywhere. That didn't matter — there were targets everywhere to hit. "This isn't working!" he yelled at someone Ruby and Yang couldn't see. One of his wayward grenades knocked a tree over into a sleuth of small Ursae. Its trunk crushed at least two or three. "Never mind, that one worked."

"Shut up and keep shooting!" Nora yelled back. At some point in the chaos, she'd ended up with Pyrrha's weapon. Ren, at her side, fired his pistols constantly in enfilade with her. Both of them displayed bloody wounds from hand-to-claw battles with Grimm.

"We made it!" Ruby shouted to let them know help had arrived. She set up in the closest thing to a clearing the area offered and unfurled Crescent Rose some more. Its scythe furniture became a makeshift bipod to steady her aim. "Down in front! Rounds incoming!" she yelled just before her first pull of the trigger.

"Oh, finally!" Jaune abandoned his position and threw Nora back her weapon at the same time. He met Yang as she ran toward the Grimm horde. "Man, am I glad to see you!"

She flashed him a wink on the way by. "Like I'm gonna turn down the chance to punch something." The absent member of their squad gave her pause, however. "Hey, where's Pyrrha?"

"She's… on the way." He fell in to provide support with his sword and shield as the monsters arrived. At first, this proved to be nothing more than blocking incessant claw attacks with the latter as the beasts swarmed toward his fear. "Uh, there are way more than I thought!"

"I hate these little bastards!" Yang's fist deformed the skull of one baby Ursa. "At least they don't have much protection at this age." Her boot easily stopped another, then another, until she realized the extent of their problem — there were far too many Grimm for her to manage by herself. The forest floor crawled with monsters. "Fall back!" she yelled at him. She traded punches for shotgun blasts in order to gain distance. "Ruby! I need bullets on my position!"

Ruby swung her gun around just in time to see Yang and Jaune flee. By now, Nora and Ren were at her side to reload their own weapons while they had a chance. "Guys! There!"

"Yep!" Nora expertly lofted grenades over their heads as they ran closer. Ren suppressed their flanks with a pistol each. One look from him signaled bad news. "We're gonna run out of ammo soon," she said lowly.

Ruby's brow furrowed; she found herself in the same boat. "Yeah. I know. We'll make a fighting retreat until Blake and Weiss get here with more help." She eventually had the same question as her sister. "Um, where's Pyrrha?" Nora only grinned. "Huh?"

The answer — as well as all five Death Stalkers — arrived shortly afterward. Pyrrha bounced from treetop to treetop with the beasts in tow. Occasionally, her shield zipped down from among the branches to strike one of them with little effect other than drawing its ire. When it snapped the tree in which she hid, she used her Semblance to fly to a new one. The clustered presence of the immature beasts as they chased her kept the elder Death Stalker at bay, but combined they still tore a sizable hole through the woods. Through this gap flooded in more Grimm of all descriptions. Ursae, Beowulves, and the occasional fledgling Griffon could be seen. The redhead dropped from her latest perch and dashed toward her friends. "Hello! Thank goodness you're here!" she said on approach to Ruby, then added "We should probably leave!" on her way up into another tree close by.

"No shit!" Yang remarked while introducing her fist to the skull of a persistent little Ursa. "There have to be fifty Grimm here for each one of us!" A bullet from Ruby dispatched another Ursa that sneaked up behind; she took that window to escape with Jaune. "Come on!"

"We need to regroup, this is beyond ridiculous." Ruby laid down what cover fire she could with Nora and Ren's help until Pyrrha dropped from the trees above to support them.

The redhead took her weapon from Nora and sent cased rounds downrange as fast as she could aim shots. "Where are Blake and Weiss?" she asked between trigger pulls.

"They went to get help." All six of them were now together at last; Ruby plucked a large ice Dust crystal from one of her cloak pockets and held it close to her chest to prime it. "Turn and go, now!"

"On it!" Yang led the charge away from her sister as she threw the pale stone into the Grimm. It exploded into a fantastic spray of opaque white ice. "I'm out of shells," she said when Ruby caught up.

Ruby primed and chucked another Dust crystal, this one orange, over her shoulder as they fled. "I've got a mag and a half left of fragmentation shot." It emitted a flowery bloom of hot lava upon detonation.

Nora checked her ammunition stores and gave them more bad news. "Ren's out. I'm out too."

"Four clips," Pyrrha added with a frown. "My shield hardly made a dent and Nora can't access her Semblance right now to break their shells. I—" Her voice broke harshly. "I may have drawn you two into a death trap. Forgive me."

"It ain't over yet." Jaune looked ahead through the trees and saw more Grimm. "Ahead of us!" About a dozen monsters were present — all immature Creeps — that had been attracted by Ruby and Yang's argument and followed them all the way.

"These we can kill! Break through!" Pyrrha hurled her javelin and split one of them almost in half. Using her Semblance to retrieve it broke her Aura; crimson sparkles encompassed her frame for an instant. "Oh…"

"Fuck. Fuck!" Yang's eyes flickered red. The sensation that came with it made her grimace. "Ruby, I'm close. I need to take some hits."

"Yang, no! You're at half Aura as it is!" She could say no more; two Creeps fell upon her at close range and she was forced into combat. Crescent Rose's blade whistled through the air as she fought.

"It might be the only way we get outta this." Yang would hear no further objection and dashed forward to draw the Creeps' eyes. "Come and get—" Another Creep dropped from the branches above right on top of her. It raked its clawed feet across her back as it landed, but Pyrrha shot it off before it could start to bite.

" _Yang_!" Ruby uncorked her full terror and became a reddish comet that flashed across the battlefield. She held Crescent Rose at her side and felled every tree in reach, desperate to make some kind of barrier to stem the Grimm flood.

Nora guided Yang toward relative safety as her sister flew. Twice she nearly collided with them, forcing one or the other to duck reflexively. "She's really moving!" Nora pointed out.

Yang winced with agony as blood trickled down her back. Her eyes glowed red. "One more hit. Nora… one more. Let me get hit one more time."

"Are you nuts?!" She had no choice in the matter, however, as another Creep pierced their lines and sank its teeth into Yang's leg. As she howled in pain, Nora bashed the monster until it finally let go and kept beating it even after it was on the ground. "Gods, no! I'm sorry! I never saw it!"

Molten agony soaked into Yang's veins, but her scream concluded with a hateful smile. "I ain't mad. At you. But I'd probably put some distance between us, if you get my drift." Her fluffy locks glowed like the morning sun in the west.

"Everyone back!" Pyrrha guided her squad away toward safety. They were now surrounded by a chaotic maze of fallen tree trunks that forced the smaller Grimm into channels around them. The beasts slowly filtered closer, their cries so loud that none of the students could hear themselves think.

Luckily for Yang, the time for thought had passed. She held a fat fire Dust crystal in each bloody hand and glared at the enemy. "Come on, closer," she hissed at the Grimm. Ruby flashed past and fell in a limp pile at Jaune's feet, her Aura drained. A strawberry-colored light danced for a second around her unconscious body. That sight threw Yang completely over the edge. She dropped the primed crystals three feet away from her boots and waited as their glow intensified. Just before they were about to burst, she let out a shriek and released her pent-up Semblance with an angled punch into the soil. The resultant upheaval directed two grand clouds of orange flame toward the Grimm horde. Dozens of them were lit on fire. Some were crushed by tree trunks displaced with the force of her blow.

And none of it mattered. Dead or dying Grimm were replaced in short order by more monsters. Worse still, the unharmed Death Stalkers had arrived. The fallen trees posed no issue for their arthropod legs. Pyrrha held up Yang as the blonde stumbled backward toward them. "Fuck…" she wheezed. Her depleted Aura shimmered gold; the cacophony of the sisters' low Aura alarm tones, plus the shrill beep of Pyrrha's, added to the awful noise that battered their ears. "We're toast."

"It's my fault." The redhead wiped tears from her eyes after she set Yang down by her sister. "It's…" A couple of larger Ursae overtopped the last tree trunk between them and their meals and charged. She whipped her firearm into its shortsword form and prepared to die fighting. Jaune, Nora and Ren flanked her silently. "It's all my—" A dozen more beasts appeared.

Claws lashed toward her face for an instant before Pyrrha found herself on the bank of a stream that hadn't existed two seconds before. It took two or three more seconds for her to realize that some force moved her about one hundred and fifty meters to the left of Ruby's slipshod tree fort in the blink of an eye — perhaps even faster. "What on Remnant?" she gasped. Her fingers and arms felt like stone. Someone's hand rested on her shoulder; she investigated the touch and found Ciel Soleil at her side.

"Easy," Ciel whispered. "You're going to be a little woozy for a minute. Take a breath. I'll be back with your friends." She disappeared as though a light had been switched off and returned the same way with Ruby draped over one shoulder, whom she deposited on the river bank. Poof, again; this time she returned with Yang.

"What the fuck?!" the blonde exclaimed, startled so badly that she couldn't decide which way to look.

"Shh!" Ciel phased into the aether once more and showed up a few seconds later with an equally confused Nora. "Stay quiet. It's all right," she advised before nothingness swallowed her form. Weiss and Blake came into view some distance up the stream as she dropped Ren off.

"What the heck is happening?" Nora demanded of them as they arrived. Ciel brought Jaune to the group and immediately sat down on the grass once he proved capable of standing on his own two feet without help. "Who are you?"

Ciel emitted a breath, her visage absolute calm. "My name is Ciel. Penny and I are responsible for this sector."

"Just the two of you?" Pyrrha looked up as Weiss discharged what little strength she had left to create a protective wall of ice around them. The act of priming that powder broke her Aura again; her legs gave way and she ended up on the grass. "Weiss!"

"Oh, I'm fine," she mumbled. Blake helped her sit upright. "Did we make it in time?"

"I… I guess?" an unsure Yang replied. "Where's Penny, then?"

Ciel only smiled at first. She fell backward on the grass, arms splayed out, and inhaled a deep breath. "Just listen for the whistle."

"She's fucked if she's out there by herself!" Yang tried, but failed, to get to her feet. In the pall that followed, a series of noises that defied identification reached their ears. It finally registered as Ciel's promised whistle. "Is that… is that her?"

Not birdsong, this. Nor was it the happy tune played by the lips of a cheerful soul as Yang assumed. Penny skipped happily through the forest, hands waved about as though she conducted an invisible orchestra. Her instruments were blades, ten in total, their siren song quite loud as they tore through the morning air. At first her victims had no clue; they were too distracted by the sudden disappearance of their prey. Even after they saw Penny and started to attack, however, the beasts were overmatched beyond reason.

Everyone else had been limited by the physical application and direction of their strength, or held back by the need to wait for a Dust charge to explode and a bullet to fly. Penny existed beyond such petty concepts. Her blades moved at the speed of thought, connected by monofilament wires that converged somewhere within the satchel on her back. Every flick of her wrist invited a hurricane of carbon and titanium which reaped a dozen Grimm at once. A full twirl of her body split charging Ursae and Beowulves in twain. The first immature Death Stalker her blades encountered offered about as much resistance as smoke. One stroke from three blades lopped off its tail and claws; she walked past and let it die as more Grimm threw themselves at her. Nothing survived the attention of her whistling death. Monster and tree alike dropped all around her; sometimes the latter crushed the former, other times Penny used the trunks to get a better view so she could aim properly. The elder scorpion bore down upon her with fearsome rage.

"Actuator six is a little sluggish," she mumbled for the purposes of her combat log. Her fingers danced wildly, each twitch the trigger for an electromagnetic pulse to control her swords. They struck the monster rapidly as it skittered closer until its spiky armor ablated. The exposed structure underneath that shell yielded without delay to the edge of her blades. She redirected four swords to handle a few stragglers, then sent the other six at the next nearest Death Stalker. "Forward targeting systems nominal." The silicon and germanium in her false skull buzzed with sensor data, just in time for her to call back her swords and impale a few Grimm that charged from behind. "Rear targeting systems need adjustment. Latency levels are problematic. Actuator twelve is sluggish, too."

Five minutes more of this effort left Penny in total command of the field. She could see Weiss' ice wall through the trees and walked toward it while her swords came home. One of those scuffed-up blades received a more thorough examination before she put it away. "Weave integrity… ninety percent?" Her head tilted adorably. "Recommend alloy alternatives. Perhaps volcanic glass reinforcement?"

Once she got there, Penny knocked on the ice and waited with a smile for someone to answer. "Hello, friends!" she called a moment later. "It's safe!"

"Hold on a second!" Ciel responded. A heavy _thunk_ came next, then a crack in the ice. Another _thunk_. Portions of it fell away. Nora, who'd made the hole with her hammer, stepped out first. Penny adjusted her expression to match everyone else's as they all emerged. Pyrrha carried a still-unconscious Ruby out last. "Oh, you're all… bleeding."

"Could be _much_ worse," Yang sighed. She did the best she could to ignore the immense pain in her wounded right leg. The utter lack of Grimm struck her. "How—how did you—"

"Like I said, I throw swords at them until they stop moving!" Penny couldn't hold onto a smile for long, however. "I'm not sure which sector we should go to for extraction. Time's almost up."

"I'll ask." Ciel stepped away from them to place a call.

"So… did we pass?" Jaune asked. He patted at the bandage above his left eye and tried to smile.

"I don't care if we did or not, yes," Weiss groaned. Blake held up most of her numbed weight. "I just want to go back to campus and sleep in that awful bed."

Ciel returned not long after she spoke. "The Bullhead will come to us."

"Suits me just fine." Weiss flexed the fingers on her left hand for a while. "I knew this had the potential to be bad, but… how many people do you think we lost?"

" _We_ made it. That's all I care about for now," Yang said between hisses of pain. "And welcome to field trials. It snowballs in both directions. You kick their ass and their asses are easier to kick. If they do the reverse to you, well..."

"Right." Pyrrha looked down at the unconscious Ruby in her arms. She decided to think on lighter things before the faces of Arslan and Reese got stuck in her mind. "A promise is a promise. I suppose we owe you all a meal."

* * *

Several upperclassmen, Coco among them, were gathered at the airship pads either to greet the survivors or, perhaps, to determine who died and who didn't for the settlement of private wagers. From his lofty perch in Beacon Tower, Professor Ozpin couldn't tell which students fell into what group. Glynda had been with him up until the point he noticed the Bullheads' presence in the western sky, after which she excused herself to go meet the survivors in person.

He kept a mental head count as airships landed and their passengers disembarked. To his surprise, many of them disgorged full teams. One Bullhead carried ten people; he watched Pyrrha Nikos step into the sunlight with her full team first, then noted with curiosity the presence of Penny and Ciel as they emerged. That twisted into genuine surprise when Ruby Rose and her squad came out last. "Here we go again," he muttered. He'd made a promise to someone about the results of the trial and placed a call with his Scroll to keep it.

"What do you want now, old man?" a gruff woman answered.

Ozpin paid little mind to her temper. "The freshmen are back. Thirty-nine. This is turning out to be quite a resilient class."

"Oooooo. I can't wait. Hey… what about _her_?"

"Oh, she lived. She is her mother's daughter, after all. I won't know the details until we debrief them tomorrow, but I am… concerned, to say the least." He stepped away from the window and returned to his desk. "I'd like you back here as soon as possible. Your sister could use a break from field work and I'm quite interested to hear your report. In person."

Derisive glee stained her words. "Fine, old man. I wanna see the little rosebud with my own eyes anyways."


	4. Number Eight

Persistent clouds brought a pall over campus the next morning. Almost every single student that managed to survive the trial had some kind of wound; Beacon's infirmary had been by far the busiest area of the school as the afflicted underwent various levels of treatment. Most people didn't have injuries that warranted a stay of any length — they received bandages or stitches as necessary and were sent on their way.

Yang proved to be an exception. The gouges on her back had mostly closed by now, and her battered knuckles were well on their way back to normal, but she currently occupied one of the infirmary's few beds. She passed the time with some game app on her Scroll that she wasn't supposed to have. To her left sat Ruby in a chair, slumped back and asleep. The cut across her cheek was already sealed over — machinations of her Aura handled repairs beneath the skin, even now. Both girls were in their usual sleepwear. Every time she snored, the blonde gave her knee a gentle strike with her left hand to wake her up. " _Whaahaga_!" she yelped after the latest such instance. "Yang! Stoooooop."

"You know, we've got an _entire_ dorm room on the other side of campus where you can sleep all you want." Her face dropped briefly. "I mean, unless Weiss hits you for snoring too."

"Weiss looks like she wants to hit me for a lot of things." Ruby folded her arms, all loyalty and puffy-cheeked irritation. "I'll go back when you go back."

Yang pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm fine? These are just more scars for my collection."

"How many times do I have to tell _you_ that—" Ruby's exhausted train of thought lacked any kind of retort in its cargo and eventually derailed. "That… I'm not going to leave you until you're, um, extra-fine?" She hunched forward. "I'm so tired. This chair hates me."

"Oh, gee, if only you had a bed that belonged to you _somewhere_ in this Academy." They shared a deeply uncomfortable look before Yang decided she needed to take charge of the conversation. "I couldn't sleep either."

Ruby's unwillingness to address the Goliath in the room leaked out as a medium-pitched, nasally whine.

The blonde set her Scroll aside. "Ruby…"

"Seven people? I don't think seven people died the whole time _either_ of us were at Signal, combined." She hugged herself tight. "It gets harder than this?"

"We're on the continent now. There are way more Grimm to fight than there were back at home." Yang tugged Ruby into an extra-strength one-armed sister hug despite the young girl's unhappy flailing. "We're gonna get stronger. It'll be fine."

"I won't get stronger if I can't get any oxygen!" Ruby wheezed. She tapped out on Yang's forearm, but, once again, the blonde paid her no mind. "Help meeee…"

"Breathing's for wimps." Yang let go after indulging in one cheek nuzzle. "I wonder what Blake and Weiss are up to. Bet they're still asleep."

"Is it healthy for people to sleep for eighteen hours straight, though?" Ruby checked the time on her own Scroll — ten minutes after nine — and contemplated whether or not to get in touch with the rest of her team. "I don't wanna wake them up. Unlike some people around here."

"Love you too, sis."

A blown raspberry was all the answer she got from Ruby before the girl noticed they had company. "Speak of the darkness! We were just talking about you!"

Blake offered a sheepish smile as she walked toward them. "I have good news," she paused to indicate the two small paper bags in her hand, "and… other news. The good news is Pyrrha bought us _two_ rounds of breakfast. These are for you."

"Oh, goodness, like she can't afford about a billion meals a day. Which she probably needs to feed her muscles, like, wow." Ruby peeked into her bag when Blake handed it over. "Strawberry pancakes! You remembered!"

Yang did much the same with her own bag. "Every kind of meat the cafeteria offers! You remembered!" She met a deadpan look from Ruby with her usual grin. "Girl, I need my iron. You do too, otherwise your Aura ain't gonna work, Miss I Love Fruit."

"I don't need meat, I eat spinach. Rest in peace, your arteries." Ruby did her level best to dismissively bite at her first pancake. Her eyes went to Blake. "What's the bad news?"

Blake placed her hands on her hips with a tiny frown. "Professor Ozpin wants our debriefing. As soon as possible."

"But I don't think Yang can walk yet."

"Let's see." Yang flexed the toes on her right foot to see how her calf would react and ran smack into a wall of pain and stiffness for her effort. She hissed like a tea kettle. "Unless someone wants to give me a crutch or some extra drugs, nah. I'll pass."

"I actually asked Professor Goodwitch on my way over. It's fine if Yang wants to stay in bed. He's mostly interested in hearing from team leaders." Blake cocked her head at Ruby's abrupt nervousness. "What?"

"That guy's super intimidating though," she whispered between attempts to cram a whole pancake into her face at once. "And tall. Why's everyone so tall here?"

Yang took a brief respite from stuffing her face to point out the obvious. "Weiss ain't that tall—"

"I know that! She's my best short friend-who-isn't-a-friend-yet." Ruby finally ran out of food and filled her mouth with sighs instead. "Okay, fine. I guess I'll just get this over with."

"Weiss and I are going with you. She's waiting in our room." Blake watched Ruby stuff her feet into her trusty red and black boots for a moment. "I'll meet you both in the Tower lobby."

"Okay, okay." Ruby tucked her Scroll into a pants pocket and stared Yang down. "Call me if you need anything. _Anything_. I'll be back so fast your hair will catch on fire. My hair will catch on fire. _Everyone's hair will catch on fire._ "

Yang waved her off with an appreciative smile. "You've been hanging around me too much. Go." She watched the girl leave with Blake until the two of them were now alone. "So, how you holdin' up?"

"I'm… not sure." Blake sat on the end of Yang's bed and placed her chin in her hands. "The Grimm back home weren't quite so fierce. Or numerous. I hardly even saw them because of our militias."

"Yeah, Ruby said the same thing and we've been fighting Grimm since we were like, twelve. Serves all of us right for being born on islands." Yang went back to the game on her Scroll as she continued to eat. "You and Weiss did really well — but don't tell her that. I think her ego is big enough."

Blake allowed herself a tiny snicker. "Ah, she's not so bad. I think she's just getting used to a whole new point of view, that's all."

* * *

Weiss brushed at her ponytail simply to keep her hands busy, though her expression in the small mirror on the desk indicated anything but boredom. Her disdain was reserved for the person on the other end of her Scroll.

"I suppose you were right about needing space. I feel better already," he said.

This was the voice of Jacques Schnee — the deceptive, haughty invader of her bloodline. Her brain shrieked ceaseless rage that no amount of measured breaths could fully silence. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," she replied evenly. "How is mother?"

"Worried. As ever, for no reason. Your training was the best my — our money could buy. No wonder you survived the field trial without a scratch."

No force on Remnant could make Weiss tell him how many times her Aura had broken yesterday. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. "So you've mentioned. Repeatedly."

"Indeed. Honestly, I'm glad you chose Beacon over Atlas. Less chance for James Ironwood to twist you against me as he did your _sister_."

The tone with which he referred to Winter caused Weiss' blood to boil to vapor in her veins. "I suppose you haven't heard from her, then?"

He openly laughed at the idea. "Fortunately, no."

She set her brush aside so her free hand could clench into a mighty fist. "Typical Winter," she said. The mere act of concurrence — false as it was — seared her lips with disgust. Even as the words came out, they were rebutted by a mental apology to her sister, wherever she might currently be. "I have to go. The Headmaster wants a debrief from my team whenever our leader is ready. She should be here soon."

"Very well, Weiss. We'll speak again."

And he was gone. Weiss unleashed her pent-up hate with a tremendous sigh and sat there for several moments while she tried to find calm again. A glance at the polished rapier on her bed brought a little solace. "When I graduate from this place," she mumbled, "no amount of money on this planet will save you from me."

Further descent from the heights of her anger took even more time, but she forced herself to climb those cliffs before Ruby arrived. One knock from the door rang out — she assumed her leader had arrived, but as she turned in her chair, a strange girl with brown hair and long rabbit ears opened the door instead. Velvet wore the same blue jumpsuit Blake had seen her in previously. Something on her Scroll had her so busy that she didn't step into the room at first.

Weiss regarded her with the cool professionalism reserved for her family's staff back home. "If you're looking for trash, we've already taken ours to the incinerator."

"Oh! I didn't know anyone was—" Velvet finally registered Weiss' identity; her face contorted with abject horror at the mere sight of the pale girl's face. She dashed back outside and slammed the door. Panicked footsteps were audible for several seconds afterward.

"What…?" Immensely confused, she stood up and approached the door on uncertain steps. It opened once again when she got halfway there. The pajama-clad Ruby stepped in this time. "Ah. There you are."

"Hiiiiiiii," she groaned. "Who was that Faunus girl at the door just now?"

"I believe she was a janitor?" Weiss peeked down the hallway in each direction, but her strange caller was long gone. "Odd. How is Yang?"

"Still can't really walk around, but otherwise…" Ruby wandered into the room's sole closet to find her usual clothes. "You look kinda mad about something."

Her countenance darkened again. "I wouldn't concern myself with it if I were you." She watched a teddy bear fly out from within the closet as her leader rummaged through its contents.

"I have to. It might get us killed."

"I—fair point. But it can wait until after we're done with this, I think." Weiss moved to equip her rapier and adjust the fit of her dress.

Ruby emerged a moment later, in her usual outfit and brushing at her hair. She took a sniff under one arm. "Eh. I'm clean enough." A squeak came out when Weiss tossed a bottle of perfume at her. "What? I don't smell!"

The girl eyed her warily. "Just in case. And did you leave your clothes on the floor in there?"

"No! Yes. Probably." Ruby obliged her with one brief spray of the fragrance on her collarbone. No small number of coughs followed. "Okay, there, are you happy? Now I smell like _every_ flower on Remnant."

Weiss accepted her perfume back as Ruby moved to get Crescent Rose. "Much better. Shall we? I assume Blake will meet us at the tower."

"Yeah. Let's go."

Campus proved a bit livelier today than yesterday. Many of the upperclassmen were out and about; some of them even chatted openly with the new students, a marked change from the way they acted before the field trial. Ruby even saw groups whose faces were completely new to her — unlike everyone else, these teenagers were in what appeared to be Beacon's school uniforms — and waved when their eyes landed upon her. One of the girls, with starkly blue hair, waved back. "Weiss, look. Seniors."

"Hmm?" Weiss cast her eyes that way as well and blinked. "So they are. I heard that you get registered on the mission boards when you become an Academy senior."

"Yeah! I can't wait!" Ruby possessed just a little more spring in her step for the moment, though her sprightly gait slowed the closer they came to the tower that loomed above. "Oh, man… d'ya think we passed?"

Weiss inhaled deep to keep yesterday's tribulations from mixing with the fresh agitation caused by her father. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Jaune yesterday: we lived. So, yes."

"Right. _Seven_ people. Wow." They scaled the wide stone steps and stood before the base of the tower that was Beacon's main administrative building as well as the CCT Tower complex which served the Kingdom of Vale. Beyond the glassy doors sat a round lobby with a gray cylindrical structure at its core and support pillars that ringed the outside. The decor within was much more to Weiss' tastes than to Ruby's — all gray stone and rich wood with big fluffy red chairs grouped around fat, circular polished wood tables. Lighting fixtures hung from the ceiling. They apparently had the space to themselves. "This feels like a library," she remarked, her voice low to match the atmosphere.

For once, Weiss felt at home in these confines. "Reminds me of a few rooms back at the mansion, actually."

"Oh." Ruby plunked herself down into one of the chairs and sighed with joy. "How rich do I have to be to afford chairs like this?"

"Not very." Weiss sat as well, though she assumed a far more dainty position than her leader. "Where's Blake?"

"Here I am." Both looked up as she came into view from behind the central core and walked over to sit with them. A book was in her left hand. "Pyrrha's team is up there now. We'll have to wait."

"Oh. Cool." Now Ruby needed to fill time and fight her anxiety all at once. "So, what do we think of Beacon so far?"

"I… well, I admit I expected a little more _structure_ ," Weiss finally replied after a moment. "This isn't exactly what I pictured."

"Yeah. All combat and no school." Blake watched a few students walk by beyond the glassy facade. "Then again, I guess we get to enroll in classes now that we—um, that we lived."

"It's not like thaaaat," Ruby said, although it felt exactly as Blake described. A hasty change of subject was in order. "I'm gonna take the weapon courses!"

Weiss' blue eyes rolled slightly. "Of course you are." She looked at her own rapier, carefully laid across the tabletop. "My private education was rather comprehensive. I'm not sure if anything in this curriculum interests me."

Blake occupied the opposite end of that spectrum. "My parents want me to take _everything_." She hid her eyes with one hand. "Which is not going to happen."

"I feel ya. That was me my first year at Signal. Dad wanted me to enroll in every single course they offered." Ruby was the first to look back as a noise came from the central core. Its doors had opened to reveal an elevator car; out stepped Pyrrha and her team. "Hey! Pyrrha! Thanks for breakfast! Again."

"Aha, you're quite welcome." The seven of them met up as soon as her squad got clear of the elevator doors. Despite the group being all smiles, to some extent or another, the redhead's face held a gloomy quality that Ruby couldn't explain. "He's ready for you. Oh, before we part ways… thank you again for your help."

"Pff, what did I do besides almost die?" Ruby looked at Weiss and Blake with as wry a smile as she could manage. "These two are the ones that managed to find the real heroines. Speaking of... have you seen Penny? I wanted to thank her myself, but I dunno where her dorm is and I didn't wanna leave Yang alone last night."

"Building four, room eight. I offered her breakfast too but she said she wasn't hungry." Pyrrha rubbed her chin in thought. "Come to think of it, she wasn't hungry at lunch or at dinner either when I tried to buy her a meal…"

"Oh, wait, she's allergic to a bunch of stuff, isn't she?" Nora cocked her head when they all looked at her. "That's what Ciel told me, anyway."

"Ooooo, that's rough. One of my sisters is allergic to peanuts." Jaune noted Ruby's nervous face and smiled. "Hey, don't worry about Ozpin. He's actually pretty cool."

"Really?" Ruby tapped the button to open the elevator doors and stepped inside. "I guess we're about to find out. See you on the flip side!" she said as her teammates entered.

"Have… fun? I guess?" Pyrrha replied awkwardly as the doors slid closed.

Ruby tapped the button labeled for the Headmaster's office and the ascent began. She paced in front of Blake and Weiss. "Calm down," the latter said. "You're more anxious about this than you were for the combat trial."

"Iiiiiiiiiii am not much of a—conversationalist?" She looked to Blake for confirmation about whether or not she'd said an actual word and got a nod. "Right. Conversationalist."

"Maybe we should let Weiss do the talking, then?" the Faunus offered with a tiny smirk.

Weiss smiled back. "If she runs out of words, I'll be happy to provide some."

Ruby emitted a less-than-enthusiastic "Thanks," just before the elevator came to a halt and its doors opened. They entered a world of glass and gears; every spot in the room that wasn't a window or the ceiling featured a cluster of greenish metal gears that ran the enormous clock attached to the western face of Beacon Tower. Six fat square stone pillars held up the gear-motif plafond above. The white tile floor gleamed like diamonds even with the weak light from the cloudy sky outside. "Whoa."

Directly ahead, beyond four chairs arranged in a neat line, sat Ozpin at his large, steel, semi-circular desk. An amicable smile was on his face as he watched them approach. "Hello, hello. Do sit down. Bear with me for a moment. How is Miss Xiao Long?"

"She's fine. Still in bed, but fine." Ruby chose the rightmost seat, with Blake at her immediate left and Weiss on the far left edge. As they watched, Ozpin dealt with some sort of paperwork. "Um, can I ask you something before we start, Professor, sir?"

Ozpin arranged the documents into a neat, precise stack and set them aside. They now had his full attention. "Certainly."

Ruby stumbled through her question. "Is there gonna be a memorial—I mean, that's how we did it at Signal but I didn't, uh, I didn't wanna—"

The Headmaster's smile grew a little more solemn. "Of course. We're in the process of notifying next-of-kin first, but Professor Goodwitch is already planning a service. It'll probably be in the campus chapel, but don't quote me on anything just yet."

"Oh." This seemed to cheer Ruby up a little, although her teammates had significantly more muted responses. "Right. I'll be there."

"Ah…" All eyes went to Blake as she spoke, which caused her to lose the will to finish at first. "Just… wondering what happens to their families."

"That, unfortunately, is not up to me." Ozpin adjusted his glasses and moved along to the topic at hand. "We usually have more Hunters on hand to help moderate the Grimm population in the Emerald Forest, but budget cuts have seen my staff reduced in favor of increased Valesian Army funding. I apologize. The number of beasts you fought should not have been so high."

Weiss' eyes widened with surprise. "I thought Vale's Academy system operated independently of the government?"

"As much as it can, yes, but all Academies rely on the Kingdoms to which they're attached for monetary support. While our relationship with Her Majesty the Queen isn't quite so entwined as that of Atlas Academy with the Royal Family of Atlas — and, frankly, their regular Army — it is still her prerogative to determine our financial resources as it relates to the needs of Vale." Ozpin's smiled turned slightly wry. "But I'm sure you're not here to listen to me prattle on about the state of our checkbooks. I know one of you is going to ask: there are no grades to be handed out. We only say that to keep you all on your toes."

"Like the Grimm don't do that already?" Ruby slapped a hand over her mouth, surprised at her own bluntness. "Sorry!"

Ozpin allowed himself a chortle. "Your candor is appreciated, Miss Rose. Regale me with the story of your team's experience in the combat trial."

Her silver eyes went blank. "Regale…?"

"Tell him," Blake whispered into her ear.

"Right, thank you. Uhhhh…" Once she managed to collect her thoughts, Ruby embarked on a detailed recap of their exploits from yesterday morning, as best as her tired mind could manage. Her teammates were content to let her be their spokeswoman; Weiss held her tongue despite Ruby's mention of her repeated Aura breaks, though she could find no judgment on anyone's face about that detail.

Ozpin held up his hand to stop her as she reached the section where her team split up to help Pyrrha's. "And this is where your teams merged with Miss Polendina and Miss Soleil, I take it?"

"Yeah," Ruby nodded. "I guess you just heard all of this from them."

Ozpin smirked a little. "More or less. I'd like to know why you decided to split up your team just before that point. Out of curiosity."

Ruby tucked the longer locks on the right side of her head out of the way as she thought. "We knew sector ten was clear 'cause Penny sent the signal about the same time we sent ours. Blake and Weiss had the least Aura — and their weapons are close-range and stuff. I didn't wanna put them in danger. Yang and I hit the hardest and we still had Aura reserves, so we decided to go help Pyrrha's guys immediately. I didn't feel like these two would be in danger in sector ten since it was empty."

"I see." He looked at her teammates now. "Did their lack of combat experience play any part in your decision making?"

"Uhhhhhhhh…" In no way did she want to disparage the abilities of her teammates in front of the Headmaster. Ruby struggled to formulate a diplomatic answer as they both gazed expectantly at her. None would come, so the truth had to do instead. "Yeah. Not that they weren't really good! It's just… they spent a lot of Aura in our first engagement."

"Admittedly," Weiss added. "Blake and I were both nervous. If we had gone with Ruby and Yang, our emotions would have made things much harder for Pyrrha's team. I endorse Ruby's decision. For whatever it might be worth."

"Same," Blake confirmed. "I think she gave us time to collect ourselves so we could have fought more effectively later, if that became necessary." She smirked a bit as Ruby's cheeks tinged red in response to their support.

Ozpin settled back in his chair with a beaming smile. "Glynda will be pleased to hear it worked out so well."

All three girls donned a confused expression. "What worked out?" Ruby asked first.

"Her team composition. She takes great pains to build teams based on ability and need. You four were placed together so Miss Rose's and Miss Xiao Long's considerable experience could balance out Miss Belladonna's and Miss Schnee's relative inexperience — your obvious talents aside." The Headmaster studied their expressions for a moment. "Surprised?"

"Only that we're just _now_ hearing about it," Weiss said after a pause.

"Yes, well, we wait until after the trial to minimize any internal strife between team members. Did it work?" His eyes said the question was mostly rhetorical — jokingly at that — and he didn't wait for a reply. "I must admit I was surprised to hear you all picked Miss Rose as your leader, however. Not to shine too much of a light on her, but from what I've read, well, she isn't the 'take-charge' type."

Overcome with sheepishness, Ruby shrank in her chair and looked away. "Ah, uh, I guess not."

"It is always good to try and test one's own limits." With a motion of his hand, he bid them to rise as he stood up from his own chair. "Another field trial is on its way soon, so keep yourselves ready. Just between us, you might be the most effective freshman squad besides the Polendina team. I expect great things from you all." And then he waved toward the door. "Ah, before you go, I have one little request."

They all stopped to look back at him. "What's up?" Ruby asked.

"Try to impress upon Miss Nikos that what happened is not her fault." He put more weight on his cane with a frown. "It might come across more effectively from a peer than from one of us. I've already sent her to see Professor Peach, but… you seem to work well together. She would listen to you."

"I dunno why she would, but…" Ruby led her team toward the elevator. "Um, I'll try to talk to her."

"Thank you." Ozpin tracked their exit until the elevator doors slid shut in front of them and the car started its descent. The amity in his expression departed with them. "Now then, where were we?"

From a carefully-chosen position behind one of the great stone pillars stepped a woman with neatly trimmed, neck-length brown hair and bangs that covered her forehead. Her complexion was the color of milk chocolate, with the face of a woman on the cusp of middle age — but too much weariness stained her citrine eyes. Brown tones marked most of her outfit, save the while, frilly top she wore, as well as a pair of golden armored boots and a long green cape attached to her shoulders via a set of silver bolts driven into the shoulders of her light brown vest. "Gods, I can't believe the resemblance. Olivine is going to pitch an absolute _fit_ ," she said on approach to Ozpin's desk.

"Worse still, she's every bit the natural leader her mother was at this age." Ozpin's brow furrowed in thought as he brought Ruby's transcripts up on the larger projection screen built into his desk. "She built her own weapon. She built her half-sister's weapon. Her technical acumen is off the charts."

"Then we should…" Amber hesitated and turned away, one arm wrapped around her torso. "...do something about her now."

"I am inclined to agree; it's part of the reason I've recalled Lady Duprix from Mistral." Ozpin closed out Ruby's file as Amber sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "That, and you need a bit of a vacation. Take a week or two and head to Patch."

Amber replied initially with a half-shrug. "I will when she gets here. Don't you still have work for me north of Vale?"

"Which Lady Duprix is perfectly equipped to handle herself." The old Headmaster eyed her for a moment, but smiled. "Now then, you were about to finish up your report?"

"Hmm." An amused smirk found its way onto her face, one she only needed two words to explain. "Jade Tock."

The mention of that name caused Ozpin to glower for just a second. "What did she do _this_ time?" His face lit up. "Unless you—"

"No. I didn't." She draped an arm over the back of the chair to her right as her smile ran away. "Someone else killed her first. One of her associates spread the story like wildfire across the Ruyter Peninsula." Her voice dropped to hardly a whisper. "She said he could fly. Literally fly."

He cocked a brow at her. "And you're inclined to believe a crook?"

"Ozpin, I know genuine terror when I see it." They locked eyes for an aeon before she added, "She said he seemed to be headed toward Vale."

This detail got Ozpin's full attention. "The Interior Ministry's system would have flagged him on entry for lack of identification." A few swipes across his desk had the logs up on his projection screen. "How long ago was this?"

"About two weeks, give or take. Maybe a little longer."

"Hmm." A search in this time period yielded about a hundred new arrivals to the city. Most of these were Atlesian while the rest were evenly distributed among the rest of the three Kingdoms. "I see the snowbird migration started early this year." Another few seconds of examination passed. "No flags. Either she was wrong, or he never made it this far."

"Yeah, but there's a problem." Amber waited for him to look at her before she explained. "I saw _this_ guy in my last AO." She placed her bronze-framed Scroll on the desk so its computer could access her files. An image of the old man that sold Opher his false passport popped up on another projection screen for Ozpin. "Recognize him?"

"Damn!" The Headmaster cast his eyes down at the floor while he processed the implications. "Did you—"

"I did, yes, but now Tock's killer might be in Vale and we'd have next to no idea." She knew what he'd ask next and answered the question for him. "Clean shaven, brown hair, slim build, pale complexion, green eyes. Maybe a little below Olivine's height. Tock's girl said he had a full sleeve of black tattoos on his left arm."

He was already at work searching pictures for a match. While any tattoos, unless they were facial, would be out of sight of passport images, at least he could narrow down the list via the other attributes Amber mentioned. Eight such men, Opher among them, were now on screen. None of their passport information caught his eye as suspicious. "I believe I should recall Branwen from Patch. I want eyes on this if and before it becomes a problem."

Amber tilted her head a bit. "I thought she was up in Solitas?"

"Not Lady Branwen. Her brother." Ozpin composed and sent the text message from his Scroll in a moment more. "And I believe she's on her way back to Sanus."

"Huh. Your eye has been on Atlas quite a bit lately." She swung a leg idly and stared at him. "There something I should know?"

"Ironwood has never been the most cooperative man. All of this is merely… due diligence." Another smile appeared as he stood up again; Amber, well-versed in his non-verbal cues, knew the conversation had reached its end and also rose to her feet. They shared a brief hug. "I am genuinely ordering you to go on vacation. Shoo."

"Yes, dad," she said playfully. On her way to the elevator, however, she stopped and turned to face him again. "How is Lapis? I haven't heard about her since Raven was here last."

Ozpin twirled his cane once and gazed into the middle distance. "Lady Stavros is… deteriorating. I fear her successor's training schedule may need to be accelerated. That's another reason I want Lady Duprix here in case you have to move to Vacuo for a while."

Amber came back toward him, fists clenched and revulsion on her face. "I _refuse_ to work with that girl. She's… she's a…"

Though his face was soft with empathy, a chilly light gleamed in Ozpin's eyes. "Lady—Amber. Maintain your composure."

She didn't even try. "No! Let Olivine do it! I want no part of her ascension!"

He wouldn't fight her simply because her emotional state was fragile enough from her field work. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Later."

"Of course." Amber's displeasure cooled unhappily after a few seconds of silence. " _Later_. Time is always on our side, isn't it."

"Indeed. Now, off with you. Put all of this out of your mind and go find a nice beach somewhere." He motioned her away with his cane, almost mockingly. "All of these pieces will fall into place. They always do."

"Fine." And retreat she did, though she shuddered as she pressed the button to call the elevator back up. "I hope you're right."

* * *

Some part of Pyrrha felt naked without her ever-present armor, but it proved impossible to wear comfortably while seated this way. Around and above her stretched out Beacon's meditation hall, a space replete with water features and leafy green plants. Light was kept to a peaceful minimum — in fact, all of it at this time of day came from the exterior, through the open windows — and ambient sound was limited to whatever birds and wind were nearby outside. She wasn't alone in here; her whole team was by her side. About a dozen other kids, all freshmen who'd survived the trial, were also present. Many were occupied with silent meditation and existed in their own little bubbles. Others were engaged in conversation with dedicated faculty to ease their minds. Pyrrha's quartet occupied the latter category.

They were under the care of a curious middle-aged woman with round glasses and poofy hair the color of her namesake fruit: Thumbelina Peach, the school's Professor of Social Studies and de facto chief therapist. From the very beginning of their chat, her focus tried to remain on the positive aspects of their experience. That proved harder to achieve the longer they spoke. "I would suggest not using your teammates as, well, _decoys_ ," she concluded through a stiff smile.

"Yes…" Pyrrha cast a sideways, apologetic glance at Jaune. "I do feel kind of silly about going along with it."

"Even after you did the same thing yourself later?"

She eyed Nora with a bit less pleasantness and frowned. "I wasn't acting as bait. I was acting as a distraction."

There was no tact in Nora's deadpan response. "What's the difference?"

"You know what? I'm past it. I mean, I guess I could have said no? So it was partly my bad too." Jaune's eyes were on the ceiling as he spoke. "Hey, it worked. That's a plus."

"It worked 'cause there was only one Grimm." Nora, whose grenade launcher was in her lap, shrugged once. "Then they all showed up and _uuuuuggghhhhhhh_. Don't even get me started."

Peach, of course, couldn't let the event slide. "Speaking of..." Her smile never wavered, even as their faces all softened with discomfort. "Let's talk about what transpired with the team from sector twelve. Arslan's, yes?"

"Yes." The redhead's hands became fists in her lap. She looked away. "What… what happened to the other two?"

"They have moved on to a better place." That was the Professor's delicate way to address an awful truth. "You saw Arslan and Reese…"

"I saw them fall. I didn't see—" Pyrrha dropped her head. "I could have done more."

"Let it go, Pyrrha," Nora advised — almost _warned_ — her. "We got back. Sometimes that's all we can do."

"But…" She felt Ren's hand on her shoulder and tried to reward his kindness with a smile. The expression wouldn't come. "I can't shake the image."

"She couldn't sleep last night." Jaune shrunk a little under Professor Peach's sudden attention. "Maybe it's none of my business, sorry."

"No, Jaune, she's your team leader and you have every right to be worried about her well-being." She regarded Pyrrha with a more careful eye, but for a moment said nothing else. "You need time, I think. Perhaps you might focus on what classes to take to ease your mind. I'd love to have such a bright pupil!"

"Ah, thank you…" There was no weight at all behind Pyrrha's gratitude. "I could use the—"

Everyone in the hall looked over when one of the other occupants burst into tears. The source was a tanned girl in light blue with purple locks styled to fall over the left side of her head. "Excuse me a moment," the Professor said. She rose from her seat to attend to the stricken girl.

"Uh oh," a crestfallen Nora mumbled.

"What?" Pyrrha looked at her for clarification but got none; she watched the distant conversation instead. Their voices were so hushed that, despite the near-silence of the hall, none of them could hear a word. "Ah, what's her name… I should know this," the redhead muttered as their chat stretched on past ten minutes.

"Nebula?" Jaune offered. "Oh, crap. She was in charge of—"

 _Was_ being the operative term, they all realized at once. Whatever Peach's latest words were, Nebula shook her head repeatedly at them, stood on wobbly legs, and started to leave the hall. Peach chased her for a few steps, but not out the door. She returned to Pyrrha and her team about a minute later. "Sorry. That went on longer than I thought it would."

"Is she okay?" Pyrrha regretted her stupid question the moment she asked it. "I'm sorry. It's obvious."

"She's had it rough." A wintry iron quality existed in the Professor's once-warm smile. "I do apologize about this, but we'll have to end our session for the moment. Pyrrha, it might be a good idea for us to do a one-on-one later. Think about it and let me know, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." The redhead and her quartet rose as one. "Thank you for the talk."

"Time for lunch!" Nora chirped as quietly as she could manage.

Jaune gawked at her with disbelief. "You ate _while_ we were on the way over here!"

"I know. It's been forever." Ren rolled his eyes at her huge smile.

Pyrrha, thankful for a lighter subject, led them toward the entrance. "I could use the air. Nora, I'll buy."

Only after they left did Peach dare to allow herself a tiny frown. She retreated from the group therapy space toward one of the isolated corners of the hall, as far away from any of the meditating students as she could get, and pulled her Scroll from a pocket. A few taps at its screen started a call. "Ma'am, it's Professor Peach."

Glynda's voice responded. "Ah, good, I've been expecting you. How are they?"

"Most of them are doing quite well. Most of them." She adjusted her glasses and looked out the nearest window. "Nebula Violette invoked her Sole Survivor privileges." No response came at first, which left Peach stood awkwardly in silence for several moments. "Ma'am?"

"I heard you," was her strained reply. "The clock starts at 10:30." She abruptly hung up.

She tucked her Scroll away and looked at the students which remained. As she set off to return to their number, that almost-inexorable, sunny grin appeared on her face once more.

* * *

No matter how many times she saw it, the sight never ceased to be funny to Velvet. Coco had ended up halfway out of her bed, as usual, with her upper body draped awkwardly on the floor and her legs still underneath the blanket. Her arms were splayed out in front of her — likely a subconscious attempt to maintain stability — but despite her position, the girl snored in the darkness as if nothing was out of order. She nudged her taller friend's shoulder with a bare foot. "Oi. Coco. It's almost ten o'clock. Oiiiiiiiii." Another nudge. "Oi! Coco!"

"Hnnnnrrrrh…" Coco tried to curl up into the fetal position, only to find a bed in her way. It didn't matter that she failed; a few seconds later another snore escaped from her nose.

"Coco!" Velvet hooked her hands under Coco's arms and tried to lift her into the world of the waking. The girl weighed too much, but the resultant short drop onto the carpet managed to jolt her awake. "Oi. You've been sleeping all afternoon." She pointed out the window at the night sky, where the shattered Moon hung in its waning phase. "You've got perimeter duty again, don't you?"

Coco allowed herself to exit her bed completely in order to lie on the floor. "Yes," was the full extent of her ability to banter at the moment.

"Then get up, lazy bones." Velvet wandered toward their shared bathroom and turned on the light. She checked the conspicuousness of her facial scars in the large mirror and frowned. Her sleeveless pink top revealed many more old wounds on both her arms and around her collarbone, but these she could easily hide with clothes. They were beneath her concern. "This makeup is _not_ holding out well. I dunno why I switched." With one side step, she made space for Coco as the girl finally gave up on sleep and shuffled in. "There you are."

"Unnh." She adjusted her orange tank top in order not to fall out of it while bending over to glare at her own face more closely. "You came back late this morning."

Velvet tensed up, unable to make eye contact with Coco either directly or in the mirror. "I, uh, I needed a minute."

All absent minded twiddling with her locks ceased when she heard those nervous words. "Why?" she asked in a dangerous tone.

The rabbit Faunus became a deer in headlights, frozen stiff and locked in a staring contest with her own reflection. "I ran into Weiss Schnee." Now they were both like statues. "Coco."

Coco's dark brown eyes narrowed to slits. "What."

"She didn't do anything. I just panicked." Velvet fumbled a hairbrush into her hands and started to work on the chestnut-colored mess that was her mop. "And ran into a wall. Twice."

"I'll kill her." She looked over just as Velvet threw most of her hair over her left shoulder; this act exposed a marking on the back of her neck which resembled some kind of barcode. "Right now."

"No, you won't, because nothing happened between us." Her rabbit ears twitched anxiously. "And, anyway, you murdering her would _definitely_ get both of us kicked out and I know you wouldn't do that to me."

Coco released her anger with a low, long grumble and went back to fussing with her own hair. "I know a lot of ways to make a bitch disappear, Velvet. All I'd need to do is volunteer to watch over a field trial and catch her ass alone."

"Coco Adel! Stop!" Velvet's hands were on her hips now. "I will not stand here and listen to you plot an assassination."

"Even if she—no, her whole family deserves it?"

To this, Velvet had no ready counter. Her defeat took the form of more high-paced hair brushing.

"Yeah." Coco eyeballed the patchwork quilt of faint, scarred-over tooth and claw marks that adorned her own arms and stomach.

"Coco… how long do you think they'll let us stay here?"

"I dunno. It's not like I take classes anymore." Coco had no idea whether or not she'd be expected to vacate the campus after four years were up. She had even less of an answer about her only friend's official status. "And it's not like you ever _started_ to."

"Yes…" Velvet finally wrangled her hair into an acceptable state and set her brush down. "Sometimes I feel the same way I used to back in Anima. Like I'm being kept around for reasons I don't understand." She barely flinched as Coco wrapped her up in a hug from behind. "I know, I know. I didn't have you. You don't have to say it _again_."

"Hrmph." Coco released her and went back to preening in the mirror. "As long as I follow orders and you… I dunno, be cute, or whatever it is they want you to do, then I don't see why they'd exile us."

"Right." One more toss of her locks and Velvet was out of the bathroom. "What are we going to do about dinner?"

"Buy it and eat it, obviously," Coco called out as she retreated from view.

"That's not what I meant, you dipstick!"

Each girl needed about forty-five minutes more to approach a state either would consider ready for the day. Despite being the one with the simpler wardrobe, it took Velvet much longer to get dressed than it did Coco; she was under express direction _not_ to start her nightly work until after a certain hour, whereas Coco had a much tighter schedule to keep.

That didn't mean she wouldn't milk every available second before she needed to leave, however. Coco laid across her bed, fully dressed except for her boots. "Gods, some of these people should be shot," she moaned at her Scroll. "That hat does _not_ go with those boots."

"Oh, yes, I know I always buy my shoes based on their hat compatibility." She snickered lightly at Coco's unamused stare. "Are you sure you don't want to eat before you leave? I _could_ unlock the vending machines in the lobby. I've got keys."

"I don't want you to get in trouble, dumbass." Coco snapped the device shut and tucked it into the right knee pocket of her cargo pants. "Ugh, fucking kill me, I wish someone else would volunteer to do this shit."

"I don't think there are enough sophomores around to pick up the slack." Velvet took a moment to slip into her blue jumpsuit and zip it up. As she did, her eyes passed over the digital alarm clock by her bed. "Wait… it's 10:45."

"What?" Coco looked as well, startled enough to stand up as she processed the hour. "Hold up. Am I late? Did she call and we just missed it?" Both girls looked at their Scrolls and found no indication of a missed call. "What—what the hell?" A sharp knock at the door froze them both. Velvet snapped out of it first — instinct drove her to go hide in the darkened bathroom — before Coco could make herself walk over to answer it. Her visitor was a distinctly sour-faced Glynda. "Ma'am!" Coco squeaked. "I didn't know I was—I mean I'm sorry I'm late—"

"Calm down. You're not late." Glynda stepped into their room and closed the door behind her. "And you're not in trouble, either," she said a little louder toward the open bathroom door.

Velvet poked her head around the door frame with a nervous smile. "Oh! Good morning and/or evening, ma'am! W-what brings you here?"

"Hmm." Glynda doffed her glasses to clean them with a small cloth she had hidden in one of her sleeves. "I _convinced_ four of the juniors to take up patrol duties this evening. You won't be called in."

"Oh." Coco knew Glynda better than to assume she'd paid a personal visit just to tell her she had a night off. The girl eyed her warily. "That can't be all."

"Observant as ever." The blonde slipped her glasses back on with a powerful frown. "I need you to do something else instead. It won't be too complicated. I'll even withdraw you from the patrol rotation for the next week for your trouble."

Neither of them knew quite what to do with this sudden outburst of generosity. Velvet stood closely to Coco, almost as if for protection. "I… don't have a choice, do I?" Coco asked at length.

The answer she got was even more surprising. "No, you do. I just came to you first because I believe you're the best equipped to handle the situation."

Coco folded her arms and tried to call up the brassy confidence that usually marked her voice — which utterly failed. "I'm listening."

In deference to her companion, however, Glynda withheld the reason for her presence. "No. Walk with me." She turned her green eyes to Velvet next. "Report as usual."

"Y-yes ma'am!" She trembled slightly in her shoes as the other two walked out.

"Well?" Coco asked as she fell in slightly behind the Assistant Headmaster. "What's going on?"

"Not yet." Glynda's voice was low, yet still carried all of its usual stern power. Neither of them spoke again until they descended the dorm's staircase and exited through its lobby into the humid night air. She checked the immediate area for bystanders; upon finding none, she finally got to the point. "One of the freshmen invoked her privileges under the Sole Survivor protocol this morning."

Coco deflated with sympathy. Now she knew exactly why Glynda had sought her out. "Ah, fuck."

"I do wish you wouldn't speak like a soldier." The blonde clasped her hands behind her back. "But, yes. The clock ran out twenty minutes ago and she has not changed her mind."

"Nebula, right? The girl whose team chose Beacon instead of Shade?" Coco stopped when Glynda did; she'd chosen a dark spot away from the main path at the edge of the courtyard to avoid attention on their talk. "How many people tried to talk her out of it?"

"Professor Peach attempted to six times. She refused. I thought your perspective might be able to bring her back from the edge." Glynda cast a long look at the broken Moon above.

Awful memories weighed heavy on Coco's chest. She struggled briefly to breathe. "I mean, I can try, but what if she tells me no too?" Stony silence from the blonde said everything she needed to know. "I'll need to go get my shit. Is she ready for me now?"

"Yes. Meet her at the north exit and escort her toward the cliff. I'll send the official checklist to your Scroll." Glynda took a few steps away from Coco before she stopped and turned. "And… thank you. No matter what happens."

"Uh huh." Coco pushed the sunglasses back up her nose to hide her sadness and started off for the dorms.

* * *

As promised, there was a tanned girl in a long blue coat waiting for her when she reached the north gate fifteen minutes later. Her back was turned until Coco whistled. "Huh?" They locked eyes until the taller girl drew close. "Oh, you must be…"

"Just call me Coco, man." She lugged her black box in one hand and waved for Nebula to follow her with the other. "I take it the past couple of days haven't gone so well for you."

"That would be an understatement." A tense Nebula smiled through her misery and fell in with her. "Where are we going to do this, exactly?"

"The cliff, but I was hoping we wouldn't have to do it at all." She felt no need to hide her eyes any longer and put her sunglasses away. "I've been where you are right now."

Nebula cocked her head at this. "Oh? Did you volunteer?"

"I… got volunteered." Coco didn't care for the absolute nonchalance with which Nebula spoke — it was the tone of someone who already embraced the end. "They put you in sector four, didn't they?"

She finally showed some kind of emotion: surprise. "How could you possibly know that?"

Coco had to raise her voice over the encroaching sound of the waterfalls off to their left. "'Cause that's where my team got wiped out last year. Did Port and Oobleck save your ass too?"

"Well… yes." Nebula shuffled along under the weight of her loss, hardly able to maintain the external calm that would help keep the Grimm at bay. They remained quiet as they forded one of the many streams that ran between them and their eventual destination. The noise of rushing water grew louder with each step. "Why do they keep sending people there if they're going to die?"

"That's all we're good for, isn't it? Dying." She winced with regret. "Sorry."

It occurred to Nebula that Coco might have understood her situation better than anyone, but she just couldn't make herself care. "I couldn't protect them. I failed. Completely. I deserve no less than this."

Coco found herself listening to an audible mirror straight out of time and came to a stop. She whirled on Nebula with a fierce glare. " _Damn_ , I wish you'd at least try to fight."

Her sternness crashed into a wall of listless resignation. "Fight? I already did. I already _lost_." Nebula pressed on; now Coco had to chase her instead of the other way around.

Time was short. They crossed yet another stream; Beacon Cliff lay directly ahead, its edge partially obscured by mist from the waterfalls that ran over it into the lake below. Coco wouldn't let it go, however. "Not fight the Grimm, dumbass, fight _this_. Would they want you to give up?"

"They wouldn't want me to suffer." There was a smile on Nebula's face — when Coco reached her side and saw it, the taller girl knew she had no chance of talking her out of her choice. "Is that why you're still here? Because your team would have wanted it that way?"

"I mean, maybe, but I… I found someone who needed me more than I wanted to leave." Another pause arrived in their talk as they crossed a stream again. "You should try to do the same. Maybe not somebody, but something."

Nebula smiled at her directly, an expression that froze Coco's blood solid. "My entire family was exiled from Vacuo because of what my mother did. They're all gone. Dew, Gwen, Octavia… they were the only sisters I had left." She finally broke down, falling to her knees as tears streamed freely down her face. "It's just _me_ now. I don't want this. I don't."

Fresh out of words, Coco placed her box down and sat awkwardly on the grass by her side. She stared into her own lap. At length, she produced her Scroll, flipped it open with one shaky hand, and tapped at its screen for a while. "We have some stuff to do first." The dull roar of a distant Grimm broke through the persistent woosh of flowing river water. "And we need to make it quick."

"I know." Nebula wiped her eyes with a coat sleeve. "I'm ready."

Coco stared at the list. "Are you sure?" was the first question on it.

"Yes."

"Okay." She eyed the second question. "Are you… absolutely sure?"

"Absolutely." A twisted cheerfulness stained Nebula's voice. Her tears had ceased. "Yes."

Coco closed out the list to switch to her Scroll's voice recorder. Another roar pierced the nearby trees. "I'm gonna record your last words. We keep 'em in a permanent archive on campus. If you have anything to say, then say it now."

"I do." She waited for Coco's signal before her testament began. "I choose to die on my own terms. I'll see you all soon. I love you." Her voice cracked. "And I'm sorry. That's all."

"Got it." Coco stood and helped Nebula to her feet; she guided her to the cliff's edge, then stepped back while her eyes searched for monsters. "Look at me or don't. It's completely up to you."

Nebula chose to admire the scenery. Far ahead of them, past the lake, past the dark forest, was Vale, a glittering diamond set into the darkness. Moonlight glinted on the surface of the ocean even further beyond. "I won't make you remember my face."

"Too fuckin' late for that shit." Coco drew a black pistol from her back pocket and disengaged the safety. "Count of three?"

"Don't drag it out. I just want to go home now."

"All right." She pulled the trigger as soon as she had the gun aimed. Nebula's Aura tried to protect her — the sparks that erupted from the back of her skull were proof of that — but a defensive mechanism designed to protect against tooth and claw could do little to stop a bullet. Nebula was dead before she even toppled forward over the cliff and out of sight. Coco didn't wait to hear a splash; she made her gun safe, tucked it away, and grabbed her box off the grass. She had to get back to campus before the Grimm homed in on her. The sound of rustling grass told her that at least one monster was on its way. "Shit. Shit." Three rivers stood between her and the north gate. It wasn't only the monsters that dogged her; unwelcome thoughts joined the hunt as Coco reflected on some of Nebula's words. A brief glance went toward the gun on her hip as memories of her team came and went. "Fuck," she sighed, "wonder what you guys would think of me now."

The arrival of reinforcements brought her back to the present. "Over here!" a girl's voice called. While she couldn't place its location within the river complex exactly, Coco recognized it as another student, a third-year with silver hair whose weapon was a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. She could see it glinting in the moonlight. "Turn left!"

"You better not hit me!" She did as advised. A moment later, the sound and fury of a launch occurred. The projectile streaked past her to the right before exploding out of view; she looked over her shoulder to see what remained of a fairly large Beowulf that had been in pursuit.

"Clear left!" her male partner called.

"Clear right!" she confirmed. "All right. Get your ass outta here, we'll take over."

They passed each other in the middle of a stream, heading in opposite directions. "Yeah, yeah, thanks." Coco sloshed her way through the water and whined. "My boots are fuckin' ruined." It was over, at least as over as it could get for now. The rest of her journey back to the north gate elapsed in silence. She could just barely see a bouncing silhouette in the distance with bunny ears — the sight made her snicker. Of course Velvet would be there.

It took every ounce of restraint in Velvet's body not to bolt out to meet her. "Coco! I heard noises I didn't like!" Only after Coco entered Beacon's grounds did she latch onto the girl in a hug.

Coco ended up dragging the rabbit Faunus for a couple of feet before she came to a stop. "Yeah." She couldn't muster her usual snark. Not now. "You're not supposed to be up here."

"Like hell. This place is a mess. Look at the leaves!" Velvet let go of her and pursued on nervous steps. "What happened?"

She needed to hide her eyes again, so out came the sunglasses. "If Glynda didn't tell you, I sure as hell ain't. Get back to sweepin'."

"But!"

"Velvet—" They eyed each other for a moment.

"What?" Velvet grabbed her sleeve to keep her from leaving. "Oi! What?"

"It's… forget it." A terrific headache rattled Coco's skull now. "Nothing happened."

She folded her arms and tried to look as stern as she could, which only put a smile on Coco's face. Given the situation, she accepted that, but kept up the pressure regardless. "I'm not stupid. I heard the gunshot."

"I'll tell you when you get back. Right now, I need sleep." She entertained the idea of a stiff drink, too — perhaps she'd ask Glynda for one when she dropped by the tower to turn over Nebula's last testament. "I'm cool. I just…"

Velvet wouldn't relent. She stared Coco down until the girl finally met her gaze. "What did she make you do?"

"She didn't—" In that time, for just a second, Coco saw a different Faunus with white rabbit ears and blonde hair — a long-gone member of the destroyed team she led into Beacon over a year ago. The ghost startled her so badly that she had to turn away.

"Coco?" Velvet darted around to her front in order to keep the conversation going. "Talk to me. I don't like this."

 _Imagine how I must feel_. It hit her then; Coco didn't know _what_ she thought about her actions. "Listen, you," she muttered, gently grabbing one of those rabbit ears, "You have enough on your plate. I don't want to freak you out while you're at work."

Velvet smacked her hand away and glowered. "I'm a little freaked out as it is!"

"Yeah, well. I have to go talk to Glynda again." Once more she tried to walk away from the conversation — to her surprise, Velvet actually seemed to let her go. "Not gonna chase me?" She looked back and found the girl in the midst of a breathing exercise. "Good. You can pester me all you want later."

"Fine." Velvet began to push her cart along. "And I will."

They parted ways in the courtyard; Coco made for Beacon Tower, while Velvet headed toward the infirmary area to begin her rounds. A light in the windows some distance up the structure told Coco the tall blonde was still in her office. The elevator ride to it passed at an absolutely glacial pace as she thought about Nebula's words.

Glynda seemed busy with something on one of her wooden bookshelves as the doors opened. "Miss Adel?" she said, her back turned to Coco.

"Yeah. Just me."

"I… see." She turned to confirm it with a soft frown. "I don't know whether to be thankful that her misery is over or upset that she felt she had no other choice."

Coco silently placed her Scroll on Glynda's desk — like Ozpin's, it had a near-field communications system to pull data from the device. "Her last words." And then she sat in the one chair Glynda kept in front of it. "Why do you keep sending people to those ruins in the Emerald Forest if the Grimm there keep killing them?"

"I am not going to discuss policy with you." Her face drew tight with unease. "And a deal is a deal. Enjoy your week off."

"Yeah. A real fuckin' vacation on the beach." They locked eyes and stared at each other for well over a minute. "What is the _point_ of any of this, ma'am?"

Glynda had nothing to give her. After a moment, she sat at her desk and pulled the voice recording from Coco's Scroll for archiving. After this, she reached into a drawer by her right knee from which she produced a fat glass bottle and two small glasses. One of these she gave to Coco. "To take the edge off. Not a word of this to anyone… except Velvet. There's no point asking you to conceal anything from her."

"Mistralian Red Whiskey? Goodness me." Coco accepted the shot after Glynda poured it, but didn't drink just yet. "None of this answers any of my questions."

"Yes, well." Glynda sipped at her own glass, her eyes closed as she soaked up the fire on its way down her throat. "Now you know how _I_ feel."


	5. Processing

"Come on, come on, come on, show me your ink!" This chirped request came from the young woman Indigo called her best friend. While they were almost the same age – tattoo enthusiast was twenty-six, exactly a year younger than Indigo – everything else about the two women was wildly different. She had pale skin and a rather willowy build, since she was somewhat taller than Opher's stocky boss. Her chest-length black hair was styled to fall over the right side of her head and tied into a neat braid with a silver bow that currently rested atop her right breast. Her sapphire blue eyes glittered playfully. "Come oonnnnnnnn," she added, her voice a polished — and slightly accented — bell when compared to the dusky, grumpy response that came from Indigo.

"Oh, shut up, Schwarze. He ain't askin' _you_ to take off your shirt so he can see the wings on your back," she grumbled. "Now focus on cooking."

"I wouldn't exactly complain if she did," Opher interjected with a smirk. Indigo glared daggers at him. "Hmm? Jealous?"

Her ochre eyes constricted dangerously. "Ever been hit with a frying pan before?"

He allowed himself to think back — _all_ the way back — for an answer. To his surprise, he couldn't recall ever being at the business end of any cookware despite his considerable experience. "You know what? I don't think I have."

Schwarze intervened on his behalf after a check on the stove, where their lunch was well underway. "Damn it, Indy, he's too cute to bonk. Stop being a jealous little brick."

"I am not a brick!"

Opher examined her with highly-amused mock thoughtfulness. He even stroked his chin. "She is kinda… brick-esque, isn't she?"

"I swear to the gods above, you are both fired. I don't care if you work for me or not. Get out." Indigo couldn't maintain her feigned anger for long, though, and began to snort with laughter.

Schwarze tittered lowly as well before she addressed Opher with a wink. "This is about the tenth time she's tried to evict me from my own pub." Then she got back to the original topic. "Show meeeeeee! I love tattoos!"

Opher kept his long red sleeves down, however. "Nope."

Her defeat emerged as a noise that placed somewhere between a whine and a sigh. "Whyyyyyyyy."

"I can't just give away all of my precious secrets." He spun on the bar stool slowly until he could rest his elbows on Schwarze's polished, dark wooden bar. A couple of other patrons sat at the tables underneath the front windows across the way — Opher knew they were regulars, since they were just as amused as he was about their little chat — but otherwise the pub was empty.

Schwarze whispered to her best friend. "This isn't working. Show him _your_ tattoos. Maybe that'll do it."

Indigo hugged herself and slammed her legs shut as an explosive blush spread across her face. "No!"

While he knew she had the tattoos, her reaction told Opher where they must have been located. He smirked wryly at Indigo. "Oh, so _that's_ where they are. No wonder I can't see them."

"Yeah, and _what_ they are is nobody's business but mine!" she whispered harshly, then pointed at the stove behind the bar to get their attention off of her. "Food! Cook it!"

She murmured to Opher next through a huge grin. "And mine." Schwarze didn't even flinch when a ruddy-faced Indigo snatched up a fistful of her black blouse sleeve. "Hello!"

"Okay, okay, stop teasing her before she hits me. Or you, and I don't get lunch." Opher easily separated them with his right hand as the other patrons chuckled at their antics. "What _are_ you frying, anyway?"

"Oh! It's some kind of… um… I dunno. It's definitely fish from Menagerie, I just can't pronounce its name." She performed a few adjustments to the fire Dust injection system to tone down the heat a bit. "Doesn't it smell nice?"

"As nice as fish can smell, I guess." Indigo killed time on her Scroll as she waited for her blush to subside. She looked up to see her friend prime a minuscule red Dust crystal against her ample chest. "That reminds me, when do you want your order fulfilled? My stock's a little weird since the Academy orders started coming in. Those kids want a lot of Dust ammo."

"Hmmmmmmm." Schwarze placed the ready crystal into a small slot on the side of the stove. "I have a couple of weeks' supply in the safe."

"I'll see what I can arrange." Indigo, as well as her employee, watched as Schwarze plated the two fillets and started on the garnish. "You don't need to make it fancy, woman, we're on a time limit."

"Excuse me, I have standards." Another two or so minutes passed as she arranged the plates to her liking. "Okay!" She presented the sizzling dishes to her customers with a terrific smile. "And while you wait for it cool off enough to eat, here's something else to snack on!" Opher got a small bowl of what appeared to be some kind of rich, brown, crusty bread, while Indigo received a colorful salad topped with a dusting of yellow cheese. "Now, drinks?"

Indigo waved her hand as she eyed the fish. "That red juice or whatever you _made_ me try from yesterday will be fine. It was nice and tart."

"The _erdbeere und zitrone_ mock-tail!" Schwarze went to work on gathering the fruit from her icebox for a fresh serving right away. "What about you, cutie?"

"Uh, I dunno. Cola is fine." He too eyeballed his fish until he felt Indigo's judgmental gaze. "What?"

"You do realize it's not illegal to drink hard shit here, right? We're not Vacuo." She nudged his leg playfully with her foot. "Soda's boring."

"Right, like you're way out on a limb over there with your daring concoction of strawberry and lemon juice." Indigo's jaw dropped open at this revelation, but he was more interested in the suppressed giggles from Schwarze, whose back was turned to them. "Wait. You didn't tell her?"

Everyone _but_ Indigo and Opher now chuckled at the exchange. "I like to use the old language because it makes the drinks sound fancy. Looks like it worked!" She winked at Indigo.

Who, after a second, hid her eyes with a long sigh. "I swear I will bludgeon you to death with this fish."

"I mean, you did already pay for it, so do what you want."

Opher thought for a moment about stunning them both with the _truly_ old dialect he grew up with, but decided against it and remained silent. A grin bent his lips all the same. After a few seconds, he finally tried the fish. "Huh. Not bad. Smoky undertone. Slightly sweet."

"Really?" Indigo snapped a bite into her own mouth. "Wow. No joke. Buy more of this." Her Scroll abruptly emitted an obnoxious chime. "Damn it," she grumbled — this was her alarm — and shut the device up. "We gotta eat and run, new guy. It's already been an hour and I wanna get the shop back open."

Schwarze's cheery tone acquired a rather motherly coloration. "Oh no you don't. I went through all the trouble of juicing these for you. You sit."

And Indigo sounded too much like her child. "But—!"

"Nope! Your customers will keep. Drink your juice."

"This was worth the price of admission by itself," Opher said between nibbles at his food. As he ate and they bickered, his gaze wandered to a black crow on the exterior sill of one of the pub's large front windows. For an instant, it seemed, the bird made eye contact with him before it suddenly flew away. The creature didn't _look_ right to him, somehow — so much time had passed since this particular sense had been activated that he needed a moment for his brain to acknowledge it. "Huh…"

"What?" Indigo asked. His thoughtful sound had brought their wisecracks to a halt.

Now he needed an excuse to find somewhere to think; luckily, one was sitting right beside him. He looked at Schwarze. "Tell you what: wrap this up and I'll eat it at the shop. That way _you_ won't have to rush," he said to Indigo.

She found herself a bit red-faced again. "Ah, man, you don't have to do that…"

"No, no, it's fine. This stool is _very_ uncomfortable." He slid off the seat while Schwarze stuck her tongue out at him, then carefully packaged his meal into one of the simple white boxes she always kept on hand. "Key?" He took it from Indigo when she reached it out toward him. "All right, then. See you in a while, brick."

"Oh, shut up!" she snapped at his back as he left. The other two customers paid their tab and left shortly afterward as Indigo went back to her meal. Their departure allowed her to address a more serious topic. "You know who he reminds me of?"

Schwarze, all smiles as she busied herself with the polishing of glasses, didn't even look up. "Us."

"Yeah." Indigo took an extremely thoughtful bite of her salad. "What do you think he's holding back?"

"Hmm." She at last forced eye contact with the shorter woman. "Has he tried anything on you?"

"Hell no. He's—" Indigo fell quiet as another gaggle of sterile and boring residents shuffled by the windows outside. "I wanna know _what he saw_ out there." She realized that a bit of information might already be in her hands. "He said one of the Beacon students looked like a girl he used to know."

"Hrm." Schwarze placed the glasses back on their racks and stood as close to Indigo as the bar would allow. "Did something happen to her, or did _he_ happen to her?"

"I dunno." Indigo tapped her fork on the edge of the plate in thought. "If I had to guess? The former. New guy's got a spine for sure, but I don't think he'd… well. What we did."

She flashed a hollow smile in response. "I'm not sure any other people in Vale are capable of what we've done, _schätzchen_. But I suppose it's worth keeping an eye on if it bothers you?"

"No, no, it's not bothering me. I just…" Indigo pushed her plate back and stood up to stretch — Opher's quip about the stools was more truth than humor — as she turned away from Schwarze. "I'm curious. Aren't you?"

"Oho, certainly. It's not often we find someone who gets along with us so well!" Her pale face darkened slightly. "I just hope he isn't, you know, _too_ similar to you and I. Two of us is probably enough."

Indigo snorted a breath out through her nostrils. "No, two of us is too many already."

* * *

While not exactly the grandest structure on Beacon's campus, the chapel proved by far the most striking. It seemed on the outside to be little more than a set of horizontally-stacked triangular metal spires, twenty-four in total. Triangular faces dominated the exterior, which gleamed brilliantly in the noon sun. The flat front of the structure was all glass except for the double entry doors. "Wow. Wow!" Ruby exclaimed.

"No joke. This blows Signal's church outta the water." Yang tucked her sunglasses away as they scaled the wide steps. Her limp had faded almost into oblivion by now; a new pair of brown boots helped hide the bite scars on her right calf.

Weiss couldn't resist a slightly-snide comment about the architecture, however. "It's… very shiny."

Blake had nothing to add and brought up the rear of their team in silence. Just behind her walked Pyrrha and her squad, with the redhead in the lead. All eight of them entered a world of darkened metal solemnity, with two rows of deep red wooden pews lined up from the back to almost the front of the chapel. A stone mosaic tile pattern covered every visible part of the floor. At the very rear of the chapel sat a statue of two almost-featureless figures, one gilded in gold, while the other seemed hewn from obsidian. Their four hands held up a polished globe of Remnant. Ruby and Yang came to a halt to acknowledge the icon with ducked heads, closed eyes, a slight bow at the waist, and their wrists crossed over their sternums with the backs of their fists pointed outward. Blake and Weiss were more impressed with the zig-zag veins of rainbow stained glass that lanced through the metal around and above them to let in more light. "This is amazing," the Faunus muttered at length.

"Yes, well, Beacon is famous for her chapel. Among many other things." Pyrrha directed her suspiciously quiet group into a pew halfway down on the right. Ruby's squad took the seats directly behind them.

Yang cocked her head curiously. "Nora, you good? Awful quiet up there."

"Yeah, yeah, just, you know." She waved her hands at the whole scene as more students continued to file in. "I kinda like this place. It's peaceful." While many were freshmen, the crowd held quite a few new faces that neither team had seen yet. Teachers also began to arrive, and soon the chapel filled with quiet conversation.

"Yeah." Ruby's smile vanished when she saw the pictures of the deceased being brought in. There seemed to be one too many. "Wait. Eight people?"

"Nebula," Pyrrha said, her eyes locked forward.

Yang's brow furrowed with sorrow. "Oh, hell, the leader of those girls from Vacuo. She must've used her Sole Survivor rights. Damn."

"Please do not swear in here," Ruby hissed at her lowly. She got a solid hair ruffle in response. "Yaaang."

Silence befell them all upon the arrival of Glynda Goodwitch, who brought up the rear of their gloomy parade with all the stern gravity she usually carried upon her shoulders. The students who arranged the portraits of the fallen near the statue of the two old gods took their seats as she stood between them, four on each side. Three people were conspicuous in their absences. Ozpin, Penny, and Ciel were nowhere to be found, even after Ruby and Pyrrha searched the gaggle as best they could for the latter two. Even Coco was there. Blake recognized her via her outfit as well as being the only person with sunglasses on in the dimly-lit chapel — she waved when she noticed the Faunus, and Blake waved back. Velvet, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"All rise," Glynda commanded. As the congregation stood, she turned to face the icon with her head bowed. "Let us speak the invocation."

The entire crowd rose to her request, even Ren. Everyone save Blake stood in the same prayer pose Ruby and Yang had executed briefly earlier — the Faunus only spoke the words because everyone else around her did. "Gods above who part the stars, holy hands who forged our world; give me the strength to change what I must, and the grace to accept what I cannot."

Glynda faced them once more and took the podium to begin her speech. "Thank you. Be seated." She eyed their numbers with muted appreciation, glad — for pragmatic and sympathetic reasons — that almost everyone who could attend chose to do so. "Occasions like this are less for the benefit of the ones who have moved on than they are for the relief of those left behind. These eight souls have already completed their journey across the vast ocean we call life. They have reached the golden shores beyond. They are already free. _We_ are here, now, so that we may free ourselves to pick up where they left off and fight on." She paused her to adjust her glasses. "We are taught nearly from birth to avoid the suppression of our suffering. To make it known so that its burden is shared among more than one pair of shoulders. Yet it is our nature to hold some misery within no matter what — to spare others from our pain, no matter how dangerous that act might be. Those lucky masses who sleep peacefully within the embrace of one of the four great Kingdoms of man do so knowing that there are whole armies between themselves and the creatures of Grimm. We — as are the people we will protect — are not so fortunate. For those of us within these walls, be you students, teachers, even myself — we _are_ the army."

Again she paused, this time to examine the level of unease on her students' faces. Many hid it well, such as Nora and Yang; others like Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha were less adept at the construction of pleasant masks. The redhead's visible discomfort actually surprised Glynda a bit. "Despite all of this, however, you too deserve as full of a release as we can give you." She motioned over her shoulders to a pair of long, red candles set into holes at the base of the icon. "Before I light these, know this: not only did every Beacon senior volunteer to guard the perimeter, but Her Majesty the Queen most graciously dispatched a company of the Frontier Corps to reinforce them. The beasts cannot hurt you." Now she moved to light the candles. "Release your misery. Let it be burned away by the purity of these flames. In the name of the gods."

Blake's childhood on Menagerie left her unfamiliar with most of the aspects of the dominant religion of men, but she knew enough to follow along and used her teammates' behavior as a guide for what she didn't know. Now, however, she ran on assumptions. She barely knew the names of the eight deceased, much less harbor any particularly strong feelings about their departure beyond the general empathy reserved for those who passed on. Blake felt sure the rest of her team was in the same boat. What misery did she have to release?

Then her team leader spoke and things began to make sense. "I almost died," she mumbled into her lap. Her eyes were slammed shut. "Yang almost died. We… we almost…"

Yang snatched her into a one-armed hug; for once, Ruby did not fight. "I almost watched my sister die." Her eyes, too, were closed. "Mom, I'm so sorry. I have to do better."

Even Weiss joined in. "There are so many Grimm on this continent!" Her quickened breaths indicated mild panic. "I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. I can't let them kill me. I have so much to do. So much."

A stunned Blake couldn't find her own words to add, but that gap was filled by members of Pyrrha's team instead. "What am I doing here? I'm not supposed to be here. I'm just a kid. This is insane!" Jaune's words.

It was only with her acute hearing that she detected Nora's breezy whispers. "Oh, Ren, forgive me. I almost got you killed again." She latched onto him with a hug so tight that Blake knew he had to be in pain. "I used too much Dust too early. I didn't take it seriously. I should know better. You never should have been in danger."

Ren's answer was barely audible, even to Blake. "I couldn't protect you either."

However, the amount of unhappiness that streamed from Pyrrha's lips eclipsed it all. At first, it seemed to mirror Weiss' anxiety. "I trained so hard and it still wasn't enough." Then it contorted into something else. "My team almost died for my failures. Ruby's team almost died for my failures. Two people _did_ die. I couldn't save them." Blake watched her grip the back of the pew ahead with both hands. "I couldn't save them." And then the redhead doubled over. " _I couldn't save them_."

Before Blake could even raise a hand, to ask if Pyrrha was all right, she found Ruby's eyes upon her. "Blake!" she whispered over the muffled din of a million suppressed tribulations being released at once, "Say something! It's all right! Hurry!"

"But, I—" Her cat ears twitched with the sheer amount of lamentation. She quickly searched within herself for something to add to that pile. "I…" Her eyes closed. "I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can live up to their expectations." That was all she felt comfortable enough to release. She fell silent and listened to what had now become a chant. Pyrrha kept going. Weiss couldn't stop muttering about how much she had to do. Nora clung to Ren for dear life and apologized a hundred more times. Only Ruby and Yang had apparently run out of gas; both sisters were quiet and gazed at their shoes.

As Blake listened, however, more and more of them fell silent. Teachers generally finished up their mumbling before students did, but soon only three or four voices were left. These died as the two candles at the base of the icon burned out and emitted gentle serpents of smoke into the air. To a person, their faces returned to the idle, vacant, solemn, but smiling masks they bore when they arrived.

Except, perhaps, for Pyrrha, whose expression the Faunus couldn't see. She remained hunched over.

Glynda didn't need to silence anyone after she returned to the podium. "Breathe." They all obeyed. "Now our burdens are theirs." She motioned to the eight portraits. "You all have the rest of the day to yourselves, though I will remind our freshmen that another combat examination is imminent. Be ready. That is all."

And so her audience rose to leave — except for Pyrrha, who was still locked in the position she'd taken while confessing her misery. "Uh, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, bent down by her side. "You okay down there?"

"I… I am exhausted," she muttered back to him. At length, Jaune and Nora managed to coax their leader to her feet so they could leave. Ruby watched them talk, even to the point of lagging behind her own team, but did not intervene.

Yet. She darted ahead to rejoin her crew. Blake and Weiss still carried shadows of uneasiness on their faces — no surprise — but their pain wasn't anywhere near the anguish writ on Pyrrha's face. She recalled her promise to Ozpin and decided, now, finally, the time had come to act upon it. "Hey, Yang?"

"Yo?" she replied, sunglasses back on her face as they approached the chapel entrance.

Ruby's next words were whispered. "Can you keep Blake and Weiss company for me? I promised Professor Ozpin I'd talk to Pyrrha if I needed to, and, uh, I think I need to."

Yang glanced back over her shoulder to judge Pyrrha's malaise herself. "Yeah. I gotcha back. Go for it." Her next words were sung to her teammates. "I see some sparring in our future, girls!"

Weiss denied her with a glare even though Yang had hands on both of their shoulders by now. "Gods above, would you please stop being you for ten minutes?"

"Why would I stop being _absolutely awesome_? That's silly." Blake, whose silence came from processing the incredible dichotomy of everyone's behavior now compared to moments ago, drew her eye. "Hey, I see you eyeballin' me. Come on. Bring it in. Team hug!"

A snickering Ruby departed the company of her team and fell in alongside Pyrrha's instead. "Hi! Can I borrow your tall muscle girl for a minute?"

"I—might I ask for what?" Pyrrha asked, her brow raised.

"Ohhhhhh, no reason." Ruby looked past the redhead and at her crew. "Unless you guys need her for something?"

"I mean, I dunno. Probably gonna hit up the meditation hall again." Jaune looked at Ren, who nodded once. "Or crash for a little bit, except I don't think Nora actually ever sleeps."

"Sleep is for the weak!" Yang called as they all emerged outside.

"Are you sure you're okay, though?" Nora asked the redhead.

She had no chance to reply. Further conversation was precluded by the dull thunder of firearms and who knew what other kinds of weaponry, all mixed with Grimm roars that came from every direction beyond Beacon's campus. The eight of them grouped up together and stood to listen as the battle raged on. Many other freshmen did the same in their own little clusters. The teachers and upperclassmen, however, wandered away as if nothing interesting was afoot.

"Goodness." Pyrrha steadied herself with a breath. "We attracted quite a crowd."

"Yeaaaaah. We didn't need to do the ceremonies too much back at Signal. Did you guys?" All four members of Pyrrha's team shook their heads at Ruby. "Yeah." And then she seized the redhead's hand. "Come on!"

She allowed herself to be tugged along despite having nearly a foot of height and much, much more strength than her dainty kidnapper. "W-where are we going?"

Ruby waved her Scroll at the redhead. "To Vale! I've still got my pass, don't you?"

"Well, yes, but—" They were now en route to the airship pads. "Don't we need permission for this first?!"

"Miss Goodwitch! Pyrrha and I are going to Vale to buy Dust for our teams! Is that cool?" she shouted over the crowd noise.

The tall blonde walked over to them with a decidedly less-stern-than-expected look. "We _do_ have couriers for such work, Miss Rose." However, some frantic pleading gesticulation from Ruby gave her pause, as did the expression on Pyrrha's face. If her students — team leaders, especially, who bore an extra burden — wanted a temporary change of scenery after what had just taken place, then she didn't really have the heart to deny them. "Hrm… I suppose. Do you have your passes on your Scrolls?" She took both the devices from them and eyeballed their screens. "Very well. I'll contact the shuttle on pad three. Try not to stay gone for more than three hours, please."

"Yes ma'am! Thank you!" Ruby immediately resumed her full-strength Pyrrha tug.

"Ah, yes, thank you?" Pyrrha gently reclaimed her right wrist and walked alongside instead. "What is this about?"

"Shh, shh. Shhhhhh. It's about you." Unable to contain her energy, Ruby sprinted across the circular courtyard. The redhead only caught up with her when they both reached the airship pads. "Sorry. I really shouldn't have had coffee with breakfast this morning."

"It's all right." Pyrrha was quietly thankful for physical fatigue to replace her mental fatigue, even if only for a second or two. "Still, I can't imagine why you're kidnapping me."

"Ahhhh, we'll get there." Ruby imagined how Weiss' servants would welcome her onto an airship and ended up with a full waist bow and arms stretched toward it — a display far exceeding what the modest little shuttle probably deserved. "Madam Pyrrha! State your destination and there we shall be! Eventually. While following all aviation regulations and stuff."

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "I wouldn't even know where to—" And then an idea hit her. "Actually… wait. There is _one_ particular shop I'd like to visit."

* * *

Half an hour later saw the pair let loose on Vale's mind-numbingly dull streets. They put the airship terminal behind them — although this wasn't the same building from which they'd flown to Beacon the first time around — and proceeded down the sidewalks toward the northwestern residential section of the mighty city. Pyrrha used her Scroll to guide them. "It certainly is out of the way," she noted with a blink.

"Uh, yeah," Ruby agreed as she also looked at the device. "What's so interesting about this place, huh?"

The redhead offered an evasive laugh. "Ahaha… I'll know it when I see it!"

"Riiiiiiight…" As the crowd thinned out, Ruby decided the time had come for their heart-to-heart. "Pyrrha. Um. We need to talk." How she planned to _do_ this, exactly, she didn't know, but she chose to wing it and deal with the problem now.

"Yes?" she replied. Her tone had Pyrrha's full attention. "I assume this is why you asked me along."

"Well, yeah." Ruby paused to await a larger gap in the passersby. "Why'd you end up at Beacon?"

"Hmm?" Pyrrha dropped the arm with her Scroll in order to walk and think. "Well, I graduated first in my class from Sanctum. It was my right to pick which school I went to next. I chose Beacon."

"No, Pyrrha..." Ruby sighed and scratched her hair. "That's _how_ you ended up at Beacon. I wanna know _why_."

"Ah—I'm not sure I follow?" A lie. Pyrrha knew exactly what the girl meant, but she had no urge to explain it.

Ruby's brow furrowed; perhaps it was time to lead by example. She cleared her throat a few times. "Yang and I… both of our parents graduated from Beacon, so we got into Semaphore Academy on Patch like, right away. We've been training to fight the Grimm since we could pick up weapons. Well, since I could pick up weapons and Yang figured out how fun it is to punch stuff." She let Pyrrha snicker a bit before continuing. "This is our whole life."

Pyrrha moved to reply, but a raised hand from Ruby cut her off. She wasn't yet finished. "That's _how_ I ended up at Beacon. Not _why_." There suddenly existed in her silver eyes a distance and gloom the redhead had never seen. "My mom… I guess every kid says this, but my mom was _the best_. She'd be gone for weeks to protect villages that never stood a chance of surviving, but she didn't care. She fought until her body wouldn't work. At least that's what dad says." Ruby became fidgety and unable to make eye contact. "But I just remember her as the mom that baked us cookies… that read us a story every single night she was at home. That always, always, _always_ wore a smile no matter how much pain she was from fighting." Her fists clenched tight, desperate to hold on to those precious images. "She died when I was little. I have to look at pictures to remember her face. But… those moments drive me forward. If I can be like that to just _one_ person in a village somewhere, forgotten by everyone else, even if they're doomed? If I can brighten whatever days they have left? Then I honor mom's memory." She looked up at Pyrrha with tears in her eyes, but a huge grin on her face. "That's _why_."

"Ruby…" Pyrrha found herself too moved to say more — and that was before the shame washed over her, so fierce she had to hide her eyes for a moment.

"Whoa! Um?" Ruby gently guided her around the corner they had to take to keep going toward their destination. The crowd dwindled to nothing in this part of the district. "Pyrrha? What? Talk to me!"

"I feel so selfish in comparison," she finally mumbled. Her pace slowed to an anguished crawl. "So selfish."

How she'd managed to make things worse, Ruby didn't know, but she kicked herself repeatedly for the transgression. "This was a terrible idea. I'm sorry. I don't know what I was think—"

"I came here to get away from my parents."

"—whaaaaa…?" Ruby came to a stop, in shock at what she heard.

Pyrrha sat on a nearby bench and watched the puffy white clouds float by. Only when Ruby sat with her did she continue. "My family is as close to royalty as you can get in Argus. For generations we have been councilmen, merchants, even officers in Atlas' army. But a Nikos has never been a Hunter." Her emerald eyes narrowed fearsomely. "With the Grimm in retreat these past few decades, my parents and grandparents decided it was time. I did not get a say. I _did_ receive the finest training our family could buy. I was so over-prepared for Argus Academy that I convinced my parents to let me attend Sanctum in Mistral instead. I hoped they wouldn't follow me there, but they did." She leaned against the bench and draped both arms over its back. "This was about the time they started to _volunteer_ me for advertising campaigns. 'To get the family name out there in Mistral', they said."

A tense Ruby sat in silent awe of Pyrrha's anger, restrained and muted though it was. "That's when you did the Pumpkin Pete's stuff?"

"Yes." A long, deep breath steadied her rage. "I've never worked so hard in my life. I wanted to graduate number one. I craved the chance to put more distance between myself and my family. The chance to become my _own_ person. The way Haven's Headmistress wanted me so badly, to bolster the quality of her students, she said, well… that was the last straw. I denied all of them and came here." Her face softened. "But the Grimm in Anima are different than here in Sanus. I wasn't ready."

"Wait, wait. Forget that. You came here to…" It occurred to Ruby that she suddenly understood her frigid, prickly teammate just a little bit better. "Pyrrha, that's not selfish! The only way you can really help others is if you help yourself first!" They stared at each other for a bit. "I read that in one of Professor Peach's fancy book thingies. Did it work?"

"I suppose it did!" Pyrrha beamed at the dainty girl. "It still pales in comparison to your story, though."

"Girl, we ain't here to have a contest." Ruby hopped to her feet and waved frantically for Pyrrha to stand up. "Come on, let's go." After they started walking again, she added, "Can I give you some advice?"

"Absolutely." The redhead had her Scroll out again so they could find the little shop.

"Dad… dad said mom wanted to save everyone. It crushed her when she couldn't. I'm probably the same way, I guess. But you can't save everyone. Sometimes bad things are your fault. Sometimes you can't do a frick about it. I'm just saying… you know." She rubbed the back of her neck furiously. "Don't let it get to you."

"Ah… if I'm honest, that trial was the first time I've ever needed someone else to bail me out." Pyrrha let her Semblance flare up briefly as she examined her right hand. "I have been blessed with wealth and martial gifts above and beyond what I deserve. I still failed."

"It's not a failure if you learn from it." Ruby glanced up after another pause. "Professor Peach has some really good books."

"Apparently—" The redhead came to a slow stop, eyes locked onto something in the middle distance. Her arms hung limp at her sides as she felt _it_ again, not as strongly as the first time, but still potent enough to register against her own Aura. "Gods above…" she breathed. A curious look from Ruby caused her to add, "Aha, whoops! I think this store is just up ahead."

Ruby cocked her head. "Umm…?"

Thirty seconds later they stood before Diamond Dust's front door. Pyrrha could see him through the windows, though he was facing the open door of what seemed to be a storage room and had his back to them. She led Ruby inside and marched straight to the counter.

Opher heard the entry chime but didn't immediately turn his head. "Welcome to Diamond Dust," he said. Then, hands cupped around his mouth, he yelled to Indigo. "If only I had an employer that would get off her Scroll to help me with customers!"

"Fight me in my office right now!" Pyrrha and Ruby heard her yell back.

Snickering to himself, Opher finally turned to greet them properly. "Don't worry, we're just messing with each—" _Everything_ stopped when his eyes met Pyrrha's.

The redhead unsteadily placed her hands on the glass case and tried to smile. "Ah, hello again!" was all she managed to say. At this close range, his Aura engulfed hers; the two invisible fields twisted around each other in a way that left the redhead's skin tingling.

Ruby stood awkwardly to her left, eyes darting back and forth as she tried to figure out why they were locked in this staring match — while she vaguely recognized Opher as the courier from a couple of weeks back, she failed to understand anything else about the situation. "Um? Pyrrha?" she finally squeaked. "What's up?"

He tugged awkwardly at the brim of his boonie hat as he faced the fact that Pyrrha's greeting, like her image, came straight out of time. "Huh. I guess you made it through the trial."

"With more than a little help, yes." She glanced down at the confused girl. "I was wondering if I might be able to buy different ammunition for our next trial, though. Oh, and extra crystals for my team. Just in case."

"Uh, well, when is it, exactly? We'd need to have ammunition shipped." Opher pointed at the shelves. "Plenty of crystals in stock right now, though."

"I believe it's the end of this week." She looked at Ruby, who nodded confirmation. "Yes."

He scratched his head and frowned. "Huh. Six days might be pushing it unless the Academy is fine with a rush order. And the processing fee."

"Hey, it's not our money!" With no answers about the strange nature of Pyrrha's interaction with Opher, Ruby decided to move on to other matters. "Since we're here, I wanted more ballistic capped rounds for Crescent Rose."

"Are we talkin' about guns?" Indigo said as she walked back into view. "I love—" Like Opher, she fell silent upon seeing Pyrrha, though her expression was simply the product of surprise. "Guns."

The redhead blinked at her. "Good afternoon?"

Indigo grabbed Opher's long sleeve. "Pyrrha Nikos is in my shop," she whispered harshly. Then she detected the look on his face — and the look on the redhead's face — realized this was his previously-mentioned doppelganger, almost blurted that out in surprise, and finally stared at Ruby. "Hey, you! Let's talk about guns! I love guns."

"Yeah! Me too!" Ruby chirped, thankful that someone else now felt as awkward as she did. "I need some high-power ammo for my baby!" She pointed toward the folded-up Crescent Rose on her back, underneath her cloak.

"Show me your baby!" Indigo watched her unfold it into its rifle form and now _both_ she and Opher had something else to be surprised about. "That's hot. May I?"

"Uh, okay, I guess, please be careful." Ruby handed over her baby for Indigo's inspection, only to realize her rifle was in obviously-experienced hands. She watched the woman aim down its scope, her trigger discipline immaculate despite it being her first time with the weapon. "I know it's a totally custom job, but I made sure it uses—"

"12.7 millimeter ammunition, yeah." Indigo examined the barrel interior exactly the way Ruby herself would have. "Chromium-lined. Does she accept full-power charges?"

"Yes!" Ruby chirped, growing more enamored by the second. "I want better rounds for Grimm in the Emerald Forest."

"Death Stalkers, Griffons, Creeps, Ursae, and Beowulves. I _could_ get you a few boxes of Model 61 in 12.7. Capped and jacketed. Ice Dust-tipped for maximum damage after penetration. Wouldn't be cheap, though."

Ruby could not have cared less about the price. "Are you my new friend?" she squeaked through her fingers.

A smiling Pyrrha, content to watch them in silence as she more thoroughly examined Opher's peculiar Aura, finally chimed in. "I believe I'll take a few of those as well, if they come in Standard 30 caliber." After Indigo flashed her a thumbs-up, she looked to Opher. "Show me your crystals, please?"

"Huh? Uh… all right, I guess." He walked around the counter and toward the free-standing shelves with Pyrrha in tow. "What size?"

"Large. We like to prime and toss them like grenades." Once she put enough distance between themselves and Ruby and Indigo — who continued to chatter excitedly about firearms and ammo — she added lowly, "You look as surprised about me as I must about you."

His muted green eyes narrowed a bit. "Can't imagine why anyone would be surprised about me."

"I feel it."

Opher's breath left him again. He'd had this conversation once before, on a different continent, in a different time, with a different woman — yet it was all the same, at once gloriously and horrifyingly familiar. He shielded his eyes with the brim of his hat. "Feel what? Awkward? Like I do right now?"

Pyrrha idly picked up a Dust crystal from the shelf in front of them. "Your Aura." She sneaked a look at the measurement software on her Scroll with her other hand; the app threw up an error and crashed, then refused to open when she tried to restart it. "It's all right. I won't tell anyone."

"What's there to tell?" he fired back weakly.

"Don't be ridiculous. It's… your Aura is unlike _anything_ I have ever seen, for lack of a better word." She browsed just enough to deflect any attention from Ruby, but it seemed like her giddy conversation with Indigo might never end. "Why were you surprised to see me?"

"That's really none of your damn business." A peculiar spot, this; Opher wanted nothing to do with her, yet he couldn't make himself walk away from the redhead either. He looked up to see a little smirk on her face. "Don't give me that look, Car—" After managing to swallow his words just in time, he turned away.

"Oh, I see. I won't pry." Pyrrha wore her usual polite demeanor once again and nodded at the shelves. "Crystals?"

"These are the biggest we've got," he said from underneath his hat. "Indigo can special order larger ones, but…" And then he was the one doing the staring. "Didn't your class _just_ have a field trial? Why are you doing another one?"

Pyrrha could only shrug at him. "Fair point. I am a bit concerned about so much Grimm exposure so quickly, but if the administration is all right with it, then I suppose I have no reason to worry."

Opher knew better than to trust power, but for now he let it go. "Right." They both looked up as Ruby busted out laughing.

"His name is Opher?" she exclaimed. "Like _gopher_?"

"And my patience has reached its end." He returned to his original position behind the counter and prepared to defend himself as Ruby continued to giggle and Pyrrha followed him. "Are you gonna buy anything, _short-stack_?"

Immediately, her cheeks puffed up with irritation. "When I get my next growth spurt — and a better pair of boots I guess — you'll be sorry! All of you will!" She grinned at Indigo in search of solidarity, as she was the next-shortest person available.

All she got was a wry snicker as Indigo steered them back to business. "New guy does have a point. If you want this stuff in time, you'd need to place an order now."

Ruby pointed at the list on her Scroll. "You already have mine."

"Oh!" Pyrrha bounced on her heels as she tried to formulate a list for her own team. "Let me think… do the Model 61 rounds come in pistol calibers?"

Indigo pulled her device out to record Pyrrha's order. "'Fraid not. They're too heavy for a handgun to shoot effectively."

The redhead crossed her arms. "Drat. What's the most powerful pistol ammo you can get, then?"

"Model 12. Fully-cased rounds with a Composition F fire and electric Dust mixture as the payload. Should be able to stop up to a juvenile Beowulf and put a decent dent in anything bigger."

"Oh my. Some of those, please." Her mind wandered to Nora. "What sort of selection do you have when it comes to 50 millimeter propelled grenades?"

"Gods above, are you in charge of an Army platoon?" Indigo mentally went through the options. "I could _probably_ sneak a case of SDC Type 24s into a rush order. Lava Dust-filled. Highly fragmentary."

"I'll take them!"

Indigo added it to the list. "Neat. Anything else?"

"As much Model 61 ammo in Standard 30 as you can give me. Oh… and crystals. Grenade-sized. Just in case."

"Right. I'll tack on her crystal order to yours." Indigo finalized the manifest and sent it off across the CCT network. "All right, here's hoping it gets here in time. I won't have a confirmation until later. I'll charge it to the Academy's account when they send me the invoice. Should have an arrival date for them to tell you by then."

"Thank you!" Pyrrha bowed her head gratefully. "Shall we?" she asked Ruby.

"Yeah! You really know how to pick Dust shops! Bye, new friend! Bye, uh… you." She waved at Indigo and Opher and followed the redhead out.

Indigo mopped her brow with an arm as she decompressed from the transaction. "Gods help me… we just made a _ton_ of fucking Lien."

"That's nice." Opher eyed her curiously. "You know a lot about guns for a Dust shop owner."

She swallowed hard. "And you seemed to be awfully chatty with Pyrrha. You didn't even get me her autograph? Some employee you are." Their eyes met. "She was the girl, wasn't she?"

He broke eye contact and stared out the front windows instead. "Yes."

"I'm… glad she made it." Indigo fidgeted with her ponytail when Opher's eyes fell on her again. "What?"

"A _lot_ about guns," he emphasized with his arms folded.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhh…" Indigo saw no point in concealing it anymore. "I'm Valesian Army Reserve. I used to be in the regular Army until I got discharged about a year ago."

Suddenly, a lot of her quirks and foibles — and her rather stout build — made more sense to him. "You're a soldier. That explains a few things."

"Like what?" she snapped playfully at him. "Nah. I guess I get it."

Opher leaned back against the wall with a sigh. "Sometimes I think I felt more at home out in the wilderness. Does that ever happen to you?"

"Man, you have no fuckin' idea." Indigo jumped a little when her Scroll emitted a chime. "Huh?" She looked at it to find that her order had already been accepted. Its invoice was on her screen, as was the estimated delivery date. "Damn, that was fast." The latter detail caused her to frown. "It's gonna show up after we close on Jeudi."

"How long after?" he asked.

"Uh… fuck. Like, almost midnight. Fastest I could get it here." She tapped the toe of her sandal on the carpet in thought. "And there's another problem. We're gonna be closed 'cause I've got business across town with Schwarze on Fraidich which I _cannot_ get out of. And if I give the delivery to another shop, they get a fat cut. I _really want_ that money."

Opher's eyes lit up. The answer was obvious. "I'll just deliver it that night. No problem. I'm going to have the next day off anyway, won't I?"

"Yeah, that was the plan." Indigo rubbed her chin. "But it's gonna be a late night for you if you do. Are you sure?"

Pyrrha looked like her. Sounded like her. In some ways, even acted like her. Now Opher wanted to know if she _fought_ like her before he'd let himself start to care again. He folded his arms once more. "If the difference between these kids living and dying is pulling an all-nighter to deliver ammo, then the choice is obvious. What kind of asshole do you think I am?" Based on the expression she now had, he delivered this speech with a bit more intensity than he meant to. He smiled to ease the tension. "I'm just saying."

"Uh, I… guess you have a point." Indigo clapped him on the shoulder as she went into the storage room. "All right, new guy, it's a deal. I'll give you the keys to my kingdom for the delivery and pay you overtime to boot. Lucky you."

"Oh yes," he replied lowly, eyes lidded as he began to plan the details of his excursion into the wilderness. This much he already knew: he'd use his delivery to figure out where the Emerald Forest was, then his day off to _observe_ the trial. "Lucky me."

* * *

Ozpin finally departed his office at the end of the day — although for him, that meant well past sunset — and moved toward his next order of business. This required a trip down via the elevator, although the ground floor of Beacon Tower was not his destination. He stepped into the car and tapped a hidden button beneath the obvious control pad, then settled in for the long journey downward. He slipped past the lobby, down past maintenance floor one, then maintenance floor two, and finally pierced the bedrock itself. The car came to a relatively abrupt stop a few moments later — the journey from his office to this point had taken about four minutes. The doors slid open.

He stepped into darkness and an intractable musty odor. Floor-mounted green lights activated thanks to motion sensors that detected his progress; a long silvery path, perhaps two meters across, stretched out ahead of him. The green glow faded into darkness above his head — the black rock ceiling was a good hundred meters up. He followed the path to its end, where stood a large silver blast door-like device with black-and-yellow warning hatch marks where its two mobile halves met vertically in the middle. The elevator stood two hundred meters to his rear. To his left, there was a small circular slot in the steel hulk; he inserted the ball handle of his cane into it and twisted it clockwise. A low groan, almost more a vibration than a sound, rang out as the two halves of the door slid apart. Beyond it stood even _more_ darkness in the form of a completely unlit tunnel, but Ozpin had no need to go any further. The door split just enough to allow a person through, and this it did — twice. The first arrival had spiky grayish hair and stubble, as well as a light- and dark-gray collared shirt and a blood-colored, ratty, ruined cloak on his shoulders. His pants were simply black, as were his boots.

"Terrible host, Oz, makin' your guests wait at the door," he cracked on the way over.

"I do apologize. Running the Academy sucks up more of my time than I would sometimes like." Both men looked toward the second newcomer, whom they heard more easily than saw at first thanks to her clanking steel armor.

They saw the irises of her eyes first, like polished, pale bronze rings bolted into her skull, then the lustrous green hair whose tone matched her namesake mineral and fell in verdant waves out of sight down her back. All three of them had roughly the same pale complexion, but she was absolutely _gigantic_ , standing well over Qrow's head and outmatching even the conspicuously tall Ozpin in terms of height. This beast was covered nearly from head to toe in dark blue cloth and metal armor plates, but the broadness of her shoulders, as well as the sheer size of her visible trapezius muscles, indicated what might lay hidden beneath those clothes. A tremendous crimson great-sword was in her right hand. "Feels so nice to be home," she proclaimed gruffly, her voice as unyielding as the metal all over her dress.

"Lady Duprix." Ozpin interfaced his cane with the door again to close it. "I'm not sure who to start with first."

Qrow shoved his hands into his pockets as they all began to walk. "Ah, let her go first. I ain't got much to tell ya."

"If I do, we're gonna be here all damn night." Olivine rested her sword on her shoulder with a frown. "Besides, I wanna go to sleep. Mistral's airships are like flying on a Nevermore."

"Hm. I'll let you get away with a summary for now, then," the Headmaster said wryly.

"The White Fang is becoming an issue." They were now right in front of the elevator doors, but no one moved to enter the car. "By the way, I haven't seen you in a while, Qrow. Run out of booze on Patch?"

"I'm watchin' a guy for Oz." He grinned when Olivine cocked her head. "You remember Tock?"

"I remember hearing about how much trouble she keeps causing my little sister." The warrior's irradiated anger caused the local air temperature to drop subtly. "Why?"

"She's dead."

That chill abruptly vanished. "Damn! Amber finally got the bitch! I'll—" The expressions she found on their faces shut her up quick. "...what happened?"

Ozpin showed her the passport information of Opher Riese on his Scroll. "One of Tock's associates pinned this man as her killer. He managed to penetrate Vale and has been living there since."

She eyed the photo. A pit formed in her stomach the longer she looked at his face, until she could stand the twisting sensation no more and turned her gaze away. "This guy's a murderer? He looks like a gardener. I could break him in half with my bare hands."

"Well…" Ozpin looked to Qrow, as his turn to enter the conversation had arrived.

"Yeah, about him. He's the only guy out of your set with any kind of tattoo on his arm, so I've tailed him for the past few days." He folded his arms. "And gods above, is he _boring_. All he does is go to work and go back to the inn where he's stayin'. Sometimes he hits up the pub next door with his boss."

Ozpin, hands clasped behind his back, absorbed Qrow's words in silence. "I am _inclined_ to leave him be for the moment. After all, he did save us quite a bit of trouble with Tock. Given too much more time, she might have been able to rally a tribe and become quite a headache." He tapped his cane on the stony floor a few times. "I'll just have you keep an eye on him for a few more days."

Qrow nodded. "Seems fair, I guess." And then he grew a little awkward. "How… uh, how are my nieces doing? Haven't heard from them since they got here."

"Oh, quite well. They're on the same team. Miss Rose was chosen to lead it, actually. She's already proving herself to be a formidable leader." Ozpin glanced aside to check Olivine's level of agitation and decided he needed to split them up. "Head up to my office, would you? Lady Duprix and I have some other matters to discuss."

"We're at the part that's above my pay grade now, right, gotcha." He waved at them and tapped the button to open the doors. "Don't mind me. I'll just have a taste of that single-malt Vacuo whiskey you keep locked up."

Ozpin cracked a grin. "I would expect no less." A few seconds later, Qrow was on his way. He looked to Olivine again. "Elucidate on the White Fang?"

A grumble leaked out as she shifted her blade to the other shoulder. "White Fang attacks on SDC assets in Anima are getting outta hand. Every one of 'em they hit gets them new followers. Now they seem to be traveling north toward Argus." She tossed her hair with a scowl. "Little bastards. If I could find somewhere to trap them…"

Ozpin raised his cane a bit to silence her. "Leave them. If they become too much of a problem, it will be James Ironwood's to handle, not ours."

Olivine snorted her dismissal. "That husk _literally_ doesn't have the balls to do what needs to be done. I say we let Raven's flock loose on those animals. Then we can pick and choose from what's left. Like that rabbit girl."

"Hm. If you're willing to take Lady Grace to Vacuo for the duration so our agreement can be maintained, perhaps. And that is if Atlas refuses to protect their assets — which I find highly unlikely. The Schnee Dust Company's Mistral Division is a box of secrets that Ironwood cannot allow to be opened." Ozpin lofted a brow at the devilish grin on Olivine's face. "What?"

"All these years and Qrow still has no clue about Summer?"

"Well, it helped that there was nothing left of her to bury." The shadow of a grin passed over his face. "Ruby Rose has another trial at the end of this week. I plan to test the extent of her capabilities."

She allowed the tip of her sword to drop noisily to the ground. Her grin became hateful. "Don't kill her too quick, old man. I want her to grow up so I get at least one good fight out of this class."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was the first that actually needed a second draft; it originally played out much, much differently, I didn't like it, and now we've got this one, which is better. I originally planned for this chapter to have another fight scene, but the resulting word count would have been nearly 20,000 and so I chose to wrap it here and let the next chapter contain it instead.
> 
> Olivine is a character I had planned for Seeker — her role was huge, as she was intended to be the Spring Maiden that would have taught Pyrrha to use her Maiden powers. Her design from then to now has changed somewhat over time, except the armored dress and crimson great-sword, which she always had. Her original personality was vastly different as well — I've given most of those character traits to Amber. Since Olivine can't be the Spring Maiden now for, uh, obvious reasons, she gets a different season instead.


	6. Silver and Old

Damn that bird.

Opher knew it was the same creature each time because of the little twinge its presence drove into the lobes of his brain. Now that he knew to look for it, it was easy to find. His plan to deal with these unwelcome eyes was already underway; for the fifth day in a row, he declined Indigo's invitation to head to Schwarze's pub and remained sequestered in his room at the inn until night fell. He stood in a corner of the room he knew would be hard to see from the one window unless the viewer was right in front of it and waited, with his television set on to provide noise — and an indication that the room was occupied. The curtains were drawn to add extra concealment. It seemed the magicked creature stood watch over the inn's entrance. He could barely detect it across the street on top of the apartment block there.

Opher stood with arms folded, his face absolutely blank. Whoever this was, they would have to sleep eventually. He was above such concerns. While the chess match bored him to tears, at least he had extra time to digest Pyrrha's uncanny resemblance to Carmine. The more he thought on the girl, the harder it was to avoid contemplation about a link. If she was from Atlas…

"I wonder," he mumbled. All he knew of their child was that she inherited Carmine's holy gift and shortly later disappeared, spirited away by parties unknown whose ability to hide her proved resistant to his inexorable power to search. He barely saw the girl's face; like so many fleeting images, it was lost to the jaws of his too-expansive life. He never even knew her name, much less if he had any grandchildren prefaced by an avalanche of greats who still walked the planet. Thinking about all the family he potentially had missed drew a bitter scowl on his face.

Continued thoughts on the past brought him back to the present and another problem: who else on this planet still _knew_ the true art, especially the level required to transform a human into something else? He instantly had two names in mind, both of which induced another scowl. "Damn them." It wasn't a matter of if they were still alive, merely where, and engaged in what machinations. If he had attracted one of their eyes enough to warrant the deployment of a magicked spy, then his worries about being found out for his false entry credentials were utterly meaningless by comparison. Opher had no worries about emerging victorious from a fight against whatever underlings they might currently employ. Whether or not he had gained the power to battle them _directly_ was another matter.

Concerns for another time, he decided; if the pattern held, then his hour was almost at hand. He checked his Scroll — eleven o'clock. As the seconds ticked by, the magicked presence held, and held, until it began to fade toward the south. Now the clock really began. Seconds drifted by. Minutes. The presence showed no sign of return. It was time. Opher moved to open both the curtains and the window; he poked his head out in search of prying eyes and found Vale's streets as sleepy and deserted as every night he'd looked upon them before. He'd been lucky to get a room that faced the building next door — the structure that included Schwarze's pub, in fact — so the next part of his journey would be easy. He swung out the window and used a precise injection of ice Dust to freeze one hand and his shoes to the wall so he could close the window from the outside. After an equally meticulous puff of fire to set him loose, he boosted to the roof of the building on a subtle geyser of wind Dust. The combined frostbite and burns from his earlier maneuver were healed well before he came to land. He stood in the center of the roof — the darkest part — and gazed southward for any sign of his avian shadow. To pick out a crow against the darkness would be hard under the best circumstances; after a moment he gave up and proceeded with his actual itinerary for the night.

Opher wanted a closer look at the facility on the far eastern side of Vale that seemed to guard it from incursions via the river system. Those waters ran underneath that section of the city wall. While getting out of Vale would be easy, especially if he left at night, getting back in would be a challenge. He wanted to know if he could return via the river the same way he did the sea; his plan was to exit the Kingdom, take a dunk, and look for grates or other obstacles. After a long, judgmental gaze at how much light the city cast upward, Opher crushed a purple Dust crystal in his right hand and swallowed the little shards — internal wounds caused by their sharpness were healed even as they were made — in preparation to dismiss the planet's gravity. His shoes detached from the roof as he floated upward in absolute silence. After reaching about the same height as the airship lanes, he bolted forward over the city on the back of a much harsher expulsion of wind Dust. With all of his focus on thrust, he crossed the giant metropolis in about two minutes and reached the eastern frontier, where he hovered over the spot where the rivers met the wall. His eyes followed the waterways back outside the Kingdom in search of a good entry point. A forest some miles distant seemed like his best option. He covered this space in three or four minutes without incident, dropped straight down into the trees like a stone, then paused to get his bearings. At his left side ran one of the two rivers that emptied out of Beacon Lake and into the sea. He stepped into its waters, cloaked in a subtle cocoon of air much the same way as he was for his jaunt across the seabed. Stealth was paramount; as such, he gravitated toward the deepest portion of the water and hugged the mud as he carefully propelled himself forward, scattering fish and other creatures along the way. The forest dropped away behind him after a few minutes of travel and the moonlight lit up the city wall ahead. It grew in size until it obscured the whole sky, which meant he had to be almost underneath it by this point, yet he could see no physical layers of underwater protection at all.

This caused him to stop short. Just because he couldn't _see_ the defenses didn't mean there weren't any; to check, he picked up a sizable rock from the river mud and adjusted its gravity so it would be neutrally-buoyant in the water. With a pinpoint application of wind Dust, he shot it downstream to check for motion sensors. Sure enough, at the far end of what turned out to be a huge pipe — almost a tunnel — in the wall, spotlights lit up the murky depths when his projectile emerged into Vale proper. To his surprise, more of them flickered on almost right above him, forcing him to carefully retreat back toward the forest. It was a good thing he'd chosen dark clothing for this affair, hat included. Careful maneuvers were required to ensure none of their beams passed over him, so his retreat went at a snail's pace. Soon they all went dark after their operators could find no threat. He emerged from the river, absolutely dry, at his original entry point almost thirty minutes later and growled. "Won't be going home that way," he sighed.

Instead of flying back immediately, he chose to walk to the forest's edge and stare at the city wall. Along its top there were evenly-spaced, barely-visible emplacements with cylindrical objects — Opher assumed correctly that these were guard posts with spotlights to catch approaching Grimm or possible intruders. He couldn't see the personnel that manned them, however. As he examined the wall, a string of bouncing lights caught his eye on the plain; they were headed toward Vale from the south and bore a dim yellow glow that reminded him of lanterns. Once his focus went to them, noises became apparent as well — the echoed, distant shouts of people in panic. They ran as if being chased, because they were; a pack of Grimm were on their heels, though in the darkness he couldn't identify what type, nor how many. Spotlights on top of the southern portion of the wall began to light up. One lantern went out as its bearer fell to the beasts. Then another. Opher approached them as closely as he felt he could without attracting any of the beams himself — or the attention of the panicked throng, which he didn't want either. Fortunately, there were enough large, leafy bushes for him to get fairly close. From his cover, he began to unleash the true art against the Grimm with subtle little snaps of the fingers on his left hand. They burned to ashes under the force of that magic, almost without sound besides the split-second crackle of flame and the tumbling of corpses.

"Someone's killing them!" a man shouted.

"I knew the Army would help us!" a woman replied. "Come on! All we have to do is get to the wall!"

Opher glanced back as a Beowulf, just old enough to have small spikes on its white armor, dashed right past him without so much as a look. He snapped it into oblivion and pushed up to follow the throng of people as they fled toward the wall. More Grimm were in pursuit, but at a much further distance. He dispatched them only if they drew too close, as his proximity to the wall made him more uncomfortable with each step — and the bushes weren't as thick as they were a few moments prior. They shouted toward the spotlights as he planned his exit strategy.

"Help us!" cried another woman. Based on the noise, a crying child was in her arms. "Please, our village was overrun by the monsters! Just let us in!"

"Mommy, I'm tired…" whined a smaller figure next to her — her daughter, Opher guessed — as they pushed through a stand of shrubs.

He had to duck to avoid the harsh beam of a spotlight, but not before he saw that girl's head explode. The sharp _crack_ of a distant rifle followed a second later. It had come from the top of the wall. More shots came afterward. One by one, he watched the screaming victims take bullets and fall out of sight, so frozen by disbelief and horror that he didn't even acknowledge the next spotlight that got close. Only the muffled wailing of the child remained; the spotlights swept back and forth as they tried to locate it. Opher remained a crouched statue. A full-grown Creep bounced off of him, but neither man nor monster acknowledged the contact and the beast moved on. A spotlight fell on it shortly afterward and it was dispatched by a sniper's bullet. One by one, the beams went out and the crying subsided, although the rustle and growl of Grimm took over as they approached their tiny meal.

Opher didn't let them get anywhere near it. They were fed lances of ice that burst from the soil at the mere whim of his angry mind and left impaled as he carefully approached where he last heard the infant weep. He found it a few moments later underneath its dead mother. He gently pushed the body off of it so it could breathe. Its cries restarted the moment air reached its lungs. A spotlight on top of the wall turned on in response. In one motion, he scooped the child up, placed it carefully against his chest, and rocketed into the starry sky with every ounce of wind Dust in his veins. He passed airship altitude in five seconds and kept going until he felt sure that the spotlights couldn't elevate enough to see him. The child in his arms wailed directly into his chest, but after he slowed to a hover, those cries began to wane. He silently discharged another shard of gravity Dust to maintain his height and tried not to shriek with rage.

"Why?" he asked the infant. "Why didn't they just kill the…" A look at its tear-soaked face gave him no answers. He couldn't tell whether this was a boy or girl. It didn't matter; this kid would make it to Vale if he had to punch a hole in the wall himself.

The spotlight below went out and Opher was again free to fly. Mindful of airship traffic, he descended toward the city at a shallow angle, his eyes darting about in search of a large building that he could recognize as a hospital. His lack of familiarity with Vale defeated him. He risked a lower altitude and detection in the city's glow to find one, hovering over city block after city block until he floated above the Government District, which looked like no other part of the city — the whole area was filled with imposing stone buildings, loaded with columns and arches that dominated their architecture. At the center of the district stood Vale's enormous palace, residence of the Queen, whose four spires and central golden dome constituted the tallest structures in the Kingdom besides its wall. It was lit up like the sun, so he could get no closer, but off to his right he saw a hospital. Once he got there, he decided the best course of action would be to leave the child on the roof and wait to see if anyone noticed. The baby began to wail as soon as he set it on the cold stone and reached up toward him as he flew back into the embrace of the night. Seconds ticked by as he waited for a response. The more of them that passed, the tighter his fists clenched until, suddenly, finally, the roof access door in the far left corner opened. A nurse stepped into view with grass-green hair and light blue scrubs.

"Where did you come from?!" she gasped as she ran over to the child.

His work done, Opher turned away and looked toward the northwest corner of the city in order to calculate the way home. He chose to fly a gentle parabola out of the Government District and back toward his stomping ground, which, after dodging a cargo airship at the apex, he accomplished in short order. Picking out the inn proved a little harder from this perspective.

"Ah, shit, where is it…" Once he actually found it, he touched down on the center of the roof, took a few steps forward under the momentum… and dropped straight to his knees. It wasn't the weight of fatigue that buckled him — his ability to feel such exhaustion had long since departed — but an avalanche of regret and unwanted flashbacks instead. "Why did I freeze? I could have saved them."

He knew why. Their deaths brought him back to the last instance he could recall of indiscriminate slaughter even approaching what he'd just seen. Images of the fallen in their hundreds, maybe thousands, stretched out across his mind, with torrents of ancient Grimm among them to pick off those that hadn't yet expired — victims of a war far earlier than even Carmine's time. He realized he might be one of only three people on the planet left that still remembered that conflict; in fact, it felt like the whole species had done its utmost to forget — and succeeded. "I thought we were past this." Against these dreadful chains, he forced himself to his feet and stared out at the city skyline. At first he thought this was a Kingdom, but now it felt more like a prison. Nobody in, nobody out.

Those eyes were near again. He could feel that twinge. In no mood to be spied on, he looked toward the source and found the creature had taken up its previous post across the street. Opher slunk across the roof, careful to remain away from that edge of the building, and simply let himself fall into the alley below. He landed with a soft metallic _clunk_ on the hard ground and laid there for the second and a half it took for his broken arms to be completely repaired by his Aura. If the creature noticed the sound, it didn't move to investigate, so he took his time to stand up, crawl back up the side of the inn with icy handholds, and retreat into his room for the night.

* * *

"Man, you've had a stick up your ass all day. If you don't want to deliver this order, then don't. I'll make up the money elsewhere."

Opher squinted at one of the Dust powder tubes on the shop's left-hand wall, then back at a clipboard whose documents told him how much it should contain at the moment. He chose to let Indigo wait a second before he answered. "That's not why I'm mad."

This was, at least, progress — and the first words he'd actually said since he reported for work. Indigo folded her arms and eyed him from behind the register. "Then why? It feels like you've been avoiding us all week. Schwarze thinks she pissed you off. What's the problem?"

There wasn't any part of what he did and saw last night that he could relate to her, so he had no choice but to be evasive. "It isn't something either of you did, but beyond that, I _really_ don't want to talk about it." He moved to another of the Dust tubes. "But if you invite me to the pub again, then I'll go. I'll need something entertaining to keep me awake anyway."

Indigo was wholly unsatisfied. "Is this about Pyrrha Nikos reminding you of… whoever, again?"

This was an out, unpleasant as it might be. He eyed her from across the shop and decided to throw her a bone. "What if it is?"

Now Indigo had a problem that she could fix, or so she thought. "Dude, you gotta get over this. What was her name?" she asked while walking over to him.

Opher had no interest at all in pursuing this topic, but then he hesitated: if she cared enough to ask, why not take the chance to vent a little bit? Who knew when he'd get another opportunity again, especially if his little jaunt tomorrow went sideways — and besides, it was hard to resist the visage of his mother. "Her name was Carmine."

"Good start," Indigo said, hands on her hips. The tone of her next words revealed how much she wanted to avoid crossing any lines. "Um… what happened? I know it's not my business, but—"

"The Grimm." Opher set the clipboard aside with a long sigh. "I should have been there to help her… but I wasn't."

Indigo regretted drawing him away from his anger because defeat replaced it. He looked as weak and listless as she'd ever seen him, like the life departed his body as she watched. "Shit. I'm sorry."

"That makes two of us." Opher turned his back on her and watched people walk past outside through the front windows.

She skittered around to make him face her again, pleased with the progress they seemed to be making. Her expression, of course, held nothing but empathy. "I, um, I assume you were close?" Initial silence made her regret the question. "Yeah, no, never mind. I'm dumb."

"We had a daughter together."

The inflection in that whole sentence, much less its content, was a brick to Indigo's stomach. She stopped trying to make him look at her and walked a few steps away. "Fuck me." No other words would come to her.

"Yeah." Opher looked at the clipboard again, though his eyes were really on something in his mind instead. "After Carmine died, she was taken away. I only saw her face once. I never even knew her name." He flinched as Indigo abruptly clamped onto him in a hug. "You've got a lot of strength to be so portable."

"Shut up, dumbass." She looked up at him to gauge his pain — emotional or otherwise — and didn't like what she saw. "You never really got over it?" He shook his head. "And they didn't try to exile you?"

Opher allowed himself, at length, to hug her back as he recalled something Pyrrha said, which he then used to help reinforce his lie. "I worked for the Schnees, plus, there aren't a whole lot of people willing to risk the Grimm exposure to look for Dust. Rules were bent."

"Right." She let him go and stepped away again. "I'm not sure I'd ever get over it either. No wonder you're grumpy." And the redhead had another combat test tomorrow. "Shit, man… I don't know _why_ she ended up in the Academies, but—" Something told her that finishing that statement would be a terrible idea, so she clammed up.

He tilted his head. "I assume she chose to go." Which would be another checkmark on the ever-growing list of similarities to his lost love — Carmine strove to help the helpless, and he could think of no group more vulnerable than those trapped outside the Kingdoms, even if lately he wasn't sure how much of a sanctuary these places were. Another sigh escaped, but awkwardness from Indigo gave him something else to think about for a moment. "What?"

"Forget it." She took up her original post near the register. "I'll buy tonight. And you're having at least one glass of that fancy-ass liquor Schwarze keeps."

"Your benevolence continues to astound me, Indigo Stahl." And soon he joined her behind the counter. "Really. You're a good kid."

"I _am_ a good—kid?!" She smacked him on the shoulder, all smiles. While she noticed the fact that he never seemed to try and breathe away his grief as she did, Indigo also felt it wasn't her place to bring it up right now. "I ain't a kid, damn you. I'm older than you are!"

If only. "Hmm." Opher cracked a large grin down at her. "Not by much. Unless you're one of those women that has four or five 25th birthdays in a row." She smacked him again. "No, really. I guess I do feel better. Thanks for asking. You are a good… erm, Indigo."

"Hey, I'm the best Indigo you know." Again, all smiles, but a glint in her eyes told Opher she didn't believe some portion of his praise. She quickly looked away. "So, what are you gonna do on your day off? Schwarze and I should be free in the afternoon. Wanna hit a movie or something?"

His grin turned into a wry smirk. "Do you two do everything together?"

"Hey! She's my—" Indigo suddenly looked a little deflated herself. "...best friend."

Why she hesitated, he didn't know, but for now Opher let it slide. "If you must know, I plan to go look for a more permanent place to live," he lied. "I'll catch up with you two tomorrow night." This was the truth — if he could find a way back into Vale. "Surprise me with something interesting."

The wheels in Indigo's head were already turning. "Pff, okay. You're on."

* * *

"Blake! How're you goin'?"

Blake ceased gazing at the broken moon and looked back over her right shoulder as Velvet approached through the darkness, pushing her little cart along with a smile. "Ah… I guess I can't complain?" she offered hesitantly.

"Pff, uh huh. You lie about as well as Coco does." She brought her cart to a stop nearby and walked over to stand with Blake. "What's up? I've seen you out a lot by yourself this week."

"Really?" Blake's cheeks tinged red with embarrassment. "It's just, well, the memorial." No, that wasn't quite right. She cocked her head. "Well, no, not that. What happened after."

"Oh, the release ceremony. I heard it was really pretty." Velvet's ears twitched as she examined Blake's expression. "Wait, was it your first?"

Blake hugged herself lightly. "Yes."

"Ooo. So what happened after?"

"Well…" Her eyes went back to the moon. "None of what we said has come up since. Like it never even happened. I don't get it."

One of Velvet's ears went floppy as she became thoughtful. "Huh. Coco never tells me what happens in there either, and she's been to more than one. I think that's just how it works."

"Really?" she said, looking over with surprise. "But… I don't get it. Everything I learned back home centered around never suppressing your emotions. We'd never shut up about things that bothered us." And then she became slightly tense. "I just—with the trial happening I'm not sure I should bring it up. I don't know what to do."

Neither did Velvet. "Can't help you there, I'm afraid." She latched onto another detail instead. "Back home… Menagerie?" Her face brightened up a little when Blake nodded. "I wasn't born there. What's it like?"

Blake let her head tilt slightly. "Nothing like this place. The Grimm are a lot more sluggish, for one thing. I've heard it's because we have more innate emotional control than humans." Her voice became deeper as she imitated her enormous father. "'We're more in tune with nature and ourselves', is what dad always says."

"Ooooo." Velvet's ears pricked with realization. "Coco always did say I was the calmest of the two of us. I guess that's why!"

Blake shrugged at her. "Could be." Her eyes glittered with curiosity. "Are you two close?"

Velvet's answer came first as an immense smile. "Oh, very. She's my best friend on the whole campus." They both stared at the airship pads a short distance away. "Waiting on somebody?"

"Actually, yes. We're getting a last-minute delivery of ammunition for the field trial…" She trailed off and looked at her Scroll to check the time. It was half-past midnight. "...in a few hours, now, I guess. Ugh." She noted the low charge on her device with a frown. "I hope it shows up soon. I need to sleep so my Aura can recharge this thing before we leave."

"Yeah, I can never seem to keep mine charged. Naps aren't doing it." Velvet patted her on the shoulder a few times before a noise from the rear attracted both girls' attention. "What is that sound?"

Blake's superior night-vision gave her the answer first. "Oh, it's just Pyrrha. And her armor, as usual." She suddenly detected a subtle air of nervousness from her Faunus companion. "What's wrong?"

"Ahhhhh, I'd better get back to work so I don't get yelled at." Velvet fumbled with her broom and cart before she started off. "Good luck tomorrow! Or, uh, today I guess. See you around!"

"Thank you?" Blake watched her skitter away for a few moments before the redhead arrived. "Weird," she breathed.

Pyrrha strode up on a wave of metallic clanks seconds later. A slightly confused smile was on her face. "Blake? Did Ruby send you to receive the delivery?"

"I volunteered." The Faunus assumed a more polite stance and kept her eyes forward. "Ruby needs all the sleep she can get. I can manage with a catnap or two." She groaned at herself. "Why did I say that…"

After a little giggle, Pyrrha copied her posture and clasped her hands behind her back. "We'll be better prepared this time."

"Hopefully." Blake examined her nails in the moonlight. "Nervous?"

"Hmm. Not as much, no. I know what to expect." Her green eyes locked onto an approaching airship. "Oh, this must be it." A few seconds later she felt that sensation again and got her confirmation. "Yes. This is definitely him."

"Him?" Blake watched the airship land on the rightmost pad and linger. At first, nothing happened, but then its rear cargo doors opened and a ramp came into view. Opher walked out, dragging a pallet's worth of goodies on a jack behind him. Shortly afterward the airship took off again.

He wasn't at all surprised to find the redhead standing ahead of him, but he didn't remember the girl next to her. "Pyrrha," he said evenly as he drew closer. His eyes went to Blake. "Whoever you are."

Her reply was much more pleasant. "Opher."

Blake tried to figure out why they were on a first-name basis and came up empty. "Um…?"

"We met yesterday at his shop. His boss is why we have better ammunition this go around." She grabbed the handle of the pallet jack and helped Opher pull it toward the dorms.

"Is that the Indigo person Ruby kept talking about?" The redhead nodded affirmation. "Right." Blake chose to walk beside Pyrrha while she eyeballed Opher warily. "And I'm Blake, by the way."

"Uh huh." Opher snapped open his Scroll with one hand and eyed the screen. "How close did we cut it?"

"The trial is in about five hours. Just in time." Pyrrha found herself a little surprised by the weight of their order — even with her considerable might, she strained against its mass while Opher didn't seem the least bit winded. "This feels like a whole Dust mine."

"The shipper roped me into combining a few other deliveries with yours for a little extra Lien." He wasn't sure how direct he could be with a stranger present — internally, he laughed at himself for considering Pyrrha anything _but_ that at this point — so he framed his next words carefully. "Although your hardware is most of it. What part of the continent are you guys planning to flatten? Should I be worried?"

Pyrrha chuckled briefly. "Oh, it's the Emerald Forest — the proving ground northeast of campus. We won't be anywhere close to Vale." Side-by-side with him, she could barely detect her own Aura against his; how Blake couldn't feel it was beyond her, although she guessed that not everyone — to be fair, probably not _anyone_ — here was as sensitive to the fields as she. "We really appreciate you bringing us this so late."

"Well, I am getting paid overtime." He eyed a silent Blake for a second and remained as blank-faced as he could. "And like I told Indigo, I'm not so much of a jerk that I won't deliver supplies to kids who need them. Mind helping me separate your stuff from the other things I need to drop off?"

She nodded once. "Of course not." Things got a little easier when Blake dropped back to push their load along. "We'll take it to our dorm lobby."

"Fine." They were there within five minutes. He cut the wrapping off of the stack of goods and let Blake and Pyrrha go to work, handing him boxes or cases that didn't belong to their teams as they went. In a few minutes, they had neat little piles: one for Ruby's team, one for Pyrrha's, and the last for Opher to deliver elsewhere. He put the last stack back onto the pallet for easy transport. "I guess I'll take these to the tower and they can sort them out in the morning," he said while staring at one of the labels. "I'm out, then. Good luck."

"Thank you! I'm sure we'll be fine, thanks to this." Pyrrha dipped her head gratefully. "Good night! Get some sleep!" The two girls watched him leave. "Oh goodness, this is going to take a while to get up the stairs. I wish we had an elevator."

"Same. We'd better get it over with quick." Blake moved to pick up some of her team's boxes, but an adorable little chime from her pocket stopped her short. "Huh?" She looked at her Scroll to find it fully charged. "Wait. What? This thing was at ten percent a few minutes ago."

"Hmm?" Pyrrha checked her own device; it too now held a full charge. This was merely visible confirmation of what she already knew. She feigned confusion through a smile full of teeth. "So is mine. I wonder what happened?"

* * *

Half an hour later, however, Opher still hadn't left campus. He stood in the lobby with a visibly aggravated Glynda as they looked over the remainder of his shipment. "Why the staff cannot itemize their requisitions as well as our students seem to continues to be beyond me," she complained, her glasses in her right hand as she rubbed her eyes. "And this packaging! These shops will be hearing from me in the morning."

"Uh huh." Opher had his Scroll to one ear — Indigo was on the other end. "My boss wants to know when you'll settle our account, by the way. And also if she's in trouble."

"Unless I hear complaints from the students, you have nothing to worry about." Glynda wasn't so hasty to reassure him about the bill. "However, our teams aren't supposed to spend this much on supplies. We do give them a monthly limit." She thought for a moment about how high a price in lives the first trial cost and changed her tune afterward. "I'll make it work. Whatever advantage I can give these children, I'll take. You'll have your funds sometime tomorrow."

"You hear that?" All Opher got was joyous cheering in response. He put a little distance between his ear and the Scroll. "I guess so."

Glynda cocked an eyebrow at the noise, but maintained her decorum otherwise. "Yes… well, Mister Riese, I can't ask you to stay any longer. You've done quite enough for one night."

Indigo _still_ hadn't shut up. Opher put his Scroll away and let her keep yelling from his pocket instead while he undertook an attempt to make his plan a little more convenient. "Yeah, about that. The airship left me. Pilot said he had to stage it for intra-city routes, and since I didn't know how long this would take…" He injected just enough awkwardness into his smile and shrugged. "Mind if I crash here until I can catch a shuttle in the morning? I'm damn tired."

"I don't see why not," Glynda agreed, sliding her glasses back on with one hand. "We all need some rest. There are plenty of empty beds in the dormitories. Take your pick. Good evening."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks." Opher picked up his conversation with Indigo once he left the tower lobby. "Are you done screaming, you absolute lunatic?"

"We're rich!" she hooted. "Richer, I guess."

"So you've said. Listen, I'm gonna stay overnight on campus because I'm too damn tired to wait for a shuttle to fly back now."

"Okay, okay, fine. I should probably hit the rack too. My appointment is pretty early. See you tomorrow — at some point?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow. Or today. Whatever." He hung up and exhaled with relief. "Finally." Opher was now loose on Beacon's campus with no intention of pretending to sleep; he didn't know how close he needed to be to Pyrrha for her to detect his Aura, but it was a risk he decided to avoid for now. He walked far enough away from the tower to avoid suspicion, then made a beeline through the darkness toward the northeast to see what he could see.

The answer: not much. Beyond one of Beacon's gateways sat a dark, foreboding forest. A few rock formations jutted up in the distance, part of the foothills that supported the mountain range much further to the east. The darkness hid everything else. He lingered there for a few minutes, just long enough to notice a figure near the treeline which moved as if on patrol there. Opher checked the time — nearly two o'clock — then decided to leave before anyone out there saw him and started to ask questions. Once he got back to the dorms, he chose the building furthest from Pyrrha's across the walkway and stepped inside. At first, he thought the structure was completely empty, but in one of the hallways on the top floor he saw what appeared to be a janitor's cart next to an open door. "Uh… hello?" he said while poking his head inside. It was a dorm — unoccupied — but a light in an adjacent room was on. It seemed to be a bathroom, though from this angle he couldn't quite tell.

After a few seconds, he saw a girl's head peek around the frame. Rabbit ears were stuck to the top of her skull. "Am I hearing things?" she asked herself. Velvet's eyes met Opher's and her mouth went dry instantly; not only was he a stranger, but his complexion screamed Atlesian. These two things were enough to set off a full-blown panic. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the door frame. "Uhhhhh… uhh…"

Opher didn't register her fear at first. "Sorry. Is this room unoccupied? I'm staying overnight and I need somewhere to sleep."

Velvet ducked back out of sight. "Y-y-yes!" she finally stammered. "I'll be—be done in just a minute!"

"Okay?" He stepped into the room and looked out the window. From here he could see the other dorms; it would be easy to catch them leaving for the trial. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's f-f-f-fine!" The light switched off. Velvet bolted past him toward the door without another word and was gone.

"Uh." He wondered if she, too, knew something about him was amiss. In the absence of further information and with other things to worry about, he let it go and closed the door to the hallway. He sat on one of the bunk beds and allowed his mind to switch off certain parts so the time would pass faster — in effect, he was now asleep, sitting up, with his eyes wide open. So efficient was his Aura that it automatically discharged minute amounts of water Dust across his eyes to keep them moist without him needing to worry about blinking. Opher's uninterrupted gaze remained directed out the window.

The next time he _did_ blink, sunrise was underway in the western sky. Over four hours were gone in what felt like two or three minutes. The sight and sound of students leaving the dorms jerked him back into full awareness; Pyrrha stuck out like a lighthouse among their number. Once he got up for a closer look, he could see the military airships on the pads in the distance. Getting back outside took him a few minutes — he found that there were other students milling about, apparently to watch the freshmen leave. A few of these noticed him and stared. "Don't mind me," he explained. "I'm just a courier. I had to stay overnight 'cause I couldn't get a shuttle back to Vale."

"Oh," one of the girls said before she turned back to the parade of freshmen. With that, their attention fell away from him.

That gave Opher leave to move. He nonchalantly walked toward the northeast end of campus again to wait until the airships started flying. With the sun behind him, he could see a little more of the woods from last night, but not much. He leaned up against the interior of the gateway arch and watched the river flow for a moment.

"And you are…?"

He looked up to see a tired Coco to his right, approaching him from a closer section of the treeline. Her black box was in her right hand. Since he failed to avoid detection, his next priority became ending the conversation as quickly as possible. "Waiting for my ride back to Vale," he responded as she drew closer.

"Yeah? Well, go wait somewhere else. Didn't I see you here last night? You won't find any airships on this side." He didn't move. Coco glanced up at the noise as the Bullheads at the other end of campus began to take off. "Get lost." Still, he didn't move. "I _am_ authorized to shoot your ass, you know."

Opher was in no mood to hear about guns after his experience outside Vale's wall. "Uh huh." He eyed her from underneath the brim of his hat, trying to figure out how much of her act was bluster. With Indigo as his benchmark, he estimated — based on her hand-on-hip posture — that Coco was half-serious at worst. "You must be on patrol for Grimm, right?"

She stared right back over the rims of her sunglasses. "Yeah, and—"

"Then I'm sure Goodwitch will be pleased to hear how much time you've spent talking to me instead of doing your rounds. I'm not bothering anyone." The name drop had the intended effect, based on the way her brows raised. After one more glare for good measure, Coco walked by ahead of him and proceeded down the riverbank just as the first airships flew overhead toward the forest. He tracked her retreat between glances back over his shoulder to check for prying eyes, then dashed forward toward the treeline on the back of a discharge of wind Dust, so fast that he skipped right over the surface of the river along the way.

While Coco might not have seen him leave, he was still on her mind. _I just ran into that guy you saw overnight_ , was her text message to Velvet. _What an asshole._

* * *

Problems for Ruby and her team began right after they stepped out of their airship and onto the grassy ground. She had her Scroll out to check the terrain as before, but the device's screen flickered repeatedly as she looked. "Um… my Scroll's all messed up?" she stated as they walked. "The screen keeps flickering. What about yours?"

"So is mine." Weiss shook the device in her hand a few times, to no avail. "Odd." After some considerable effort, she managed to at least open the Aura measurement app. "My Aura gauge looks normal, so that's something."

"My Scroll was messed up last night anyway." Blake fired a quizzical look at her own fritzy device before tucking it away. "Great start."

"And it's unanimous. What the hell?" Yang tamped down the urge to throw her Scroll and looked toward her sister as they pressed on toward the treeline. "This is weird." An ancient spread of broad-leafed trees engulfed every direction they looked, which made gauging the landscape impossible from much of a distance. "If we don't have maps, I could load some explosive shot and bounce to get a better view."

Ruby plucked Crescent Rose from its hardpoint, but didn't yet unfold it. "I don't want the Grimm to notice us using Dust if we're half-blind right now. We don't have to press. Actually, if we find the right spot, we don't have to do _anything_."

"Shall we find a nice cave to hide in?" Blake was only half-joking; the inauspicious start already made her a little more nervous. "Also, does anyone else feel a little weird? My skin is crawling."

"Little bit," Ruby confirmed. "Let's take it easy for now and look around. Just remember that our stores are heavier than last time. We don't wanna run _too_ much."

"Speak for yourselves," Weiss countered. "My kit isn't any heavier than usual."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. You can go scout then."

Her already pale face blanched further with terror at Ruby's orders. "W-what?"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." She waved her hand a few times at Weiss. "Our objective is different this time. We don't really need to go on the offensive."

"Right. All we need to do is kill three hours and go home." Yang pointed at one of her gauntlets. "Are you sure you don't want me to bounce? It'd be nice to know at least _something_ about the AO."

"Ehhh." Ruby's eyes landed on Weiss as she opened her mouth to speak. "I know what you're gonna say, but no. I don't want you to throw any of us up there with your fuzzy-wuzzy disc-y things either. That's too much of an Aura cost for you."

Her blue eyes narrowed fiercely — but she still had a smile. "They're called Glyphs, you utter twit."

"I have an idea." All eyes went to Blake as she fiddled with her weapon. She pulled at a tab next to the magazine well of the pistol portion; it snapped free and trailed out a black ribbon which she wrapped around her right wrist. "I'm not _super_ good at this yet, but I can use Gambol Shroud to climb things."

Yang held back a few snorts. "Wait, you named yours too?"

She only fell silent when Blake squinted at her. "It was named that before I got it. This used to be my mom's weapon."

All traces of amusement vanished as the blonde rubbed at her hair apologetically. "Oh. Uh, sorry," she murmured, thrown completely off-kilter. "It, uh, it's in pretty good shape to be an—" _Antique_ would have been her next word had she not chosen to swallow it with a smile. "Never mind."

Blake smirked at her briefly. "It's not that old — and, anyway, she had it refurbished before she gave it to me. I'll be right back." She sprinted forward, both to gain momentum and to find a tall-enough tree to make her acrobatics worth the effort. Gambol Shroud flew from her hand into the branches above; she jerked her wrist backed and the ribbon around it abruptly snapped into rigidity as the blade of the weapon sank into the wood. Up she flew into the canopy like a pendulum and out of sight — the only trace of her departure was a brief glimpse of her weapon following her up into the leaves.

The rest of them jogged over to where she disappeared. "That's cool!" Ruby blurted out. Prolonged silence quenched her amazement. "Um… Blake?"

"I'm fine," came the reply from above. "Looking around now."

"Okay!" Ruby rocked back and forth on her heels. "Wait. I just thought of something." She eyed her Scroll again for the time — while it seemed correct, the continuous flickering of the screen gave her pause. "I hope the clock isn't messed up on this thing, otherwise… how are we gonna know when we can leave?"

"Hoo boy." Yang cast her eyes toward the west. "I guess we use the sun. Man. I hope Pyrrha's team doesn't need us again." She had another concern in mind — if their Scrolls weren't working, how would they even send a signal for an airship to find them? This she kept hidden underneath her usual goofy smile for now. "Yo, Blake! Are you up there getting a tan?"

Blake dropped from the trees and landed in a crouch, her feet contacting the soil with a subtle thump. "Unless we find a taller tree, I think that's the best view I can get." She pointed north and east with her left hand. "There are some kind of ruins over there. Not sure what they are. Big stone circle." Her hand swept to the north. "And I saw a ravine that way. Runs east and west."

"Huh." Yang's hands were on her hips as she grinned. "Your weapon is pretty neat. Why didn't you use that ribbon thingy last time?"

"I was nervous enough, frankly. I didn't want to end up wrapped around a tree in the wrong way."

Ruby ignored their chat in order to get her bearings. "If the Prisma River Ravine is north of us..." She turned roughly due south and stared into the forest. "I guess all the other drops would have been that way, then." They all listened for any sign of battle but heard nothing; the whole forest was eerily quiet. "Nothing. Good sign, I guess?"

"Hopefully," Weiss concluded through a light frown. "Ruins? I'm curious."

"They're in the only big clearing I saw around here." Blake looked to Ruby. "Might be the easiest place to set up a defensive position."

"Okay. Let's go see." Ruby grabbed a clip of ammunition from the belt around her waist and held it close to prime the rounds as she expertly whipped Crescent Rose into its rifle form with her other hand. She snapped the clip into the well as they all started to walk. "I can't wait to try this ammo out."

"I can't wait for you to have no reason to try the ammo out," Weiss fired back.

"Fair point!"

"I'm with Weiss." Blake snapped a magazine of bullets into her own weapon. "The last trial was bad enough."

"Again, fair point." After a few minutes, Ruby jerked up her left hand and brought them to a stop. "Mature Beowolf. One. Twelve o'clock. I'll get him." She peered through the scope for a second before squeezing the trigger; the added kick of the heavier Dust charge startled her a bit, but she held her aim through the recoil. Unlike her usual rounds, this one whistled through the morning air and struck the Beowolf's white facial armor with a shower of sparks. It punched right through and detonated its ice Dust payload in the beast's skull, dropping it instantly. "I'm never going to another Dust shop ever again!" she yelled as they moved on.

Yang stared at her gauntlets with a smirk. "Damn, I wonder what _my_ shells do."

"You two and your silly guns." Weiss twirled her rapier dismissively — though she had a problem in her other hand. "Now my Scroll won't stay on. Odd."

"Mine's okay—" Blake watched her Scroll flicker off even as she spoke. "Never mind."

"It feels like there are bugs all over me," a shivering Yang complained. She frantically patted at her hair. "Is there anything crawling in my do? Is there?!" Her antics faded against the deadpan look she got from Ruby. "Maybe you're right about getting a trim."

"Uh huh." Truth be told, however, her skin felt the same way. Subtle trembling from Blake and Weiss confirmed this fact. "Something isn't right."

They pressed on regardless, and in about twenty uneventful minutes they emerged from the trees where the ruins were located. The complex was dominated by a rough stone circle made of squared arches with a little space between them; at the center of this structure lay eight pedestal-like objects, though none of them held anything. The stone wasn't the same natural gray rock that dominated the area, but a mossy green mineral with silvery cubic protrusions, almost like crystals of metal. The closer they came to the material, the stranger all of them felt.

Weiss finally had a description for the sensation. "I feel like my Aura is being twisted!" she gasped. "What _is_ this stuff?"

"Good question!" A slightly-nauseous Ruby sat down roughly on one of the fallen stones to regain her mental bearings. "And why is it here?"

Yang refused to get as close as her sister did to the objects. She bounced uneasily on the balls of her feet, under attack from a cloud of invisible pinpricks that stung her exposed flesh. "I don't like this." A look at her Scroll made things worse. "It won't even turn on now. This isn't cool."

"Agreed. Let's get out of here." Weiss and the blonde looked to Ruby for orders. "Well?"

"Hold on." Ruby looked at Blake instead, who seemed to be suffering the least. "You seem okay."

"That's relative. It feels like my skin is frozen." She waved her dead Scroll around as well. "I think we should leave. Maybe head south and find Pyrrha's team?"

Ruby hopped to her feet and wobbled toward them. "Yeah! Yeah. Let's—"

A powerful, if brief, vibration in the ground froze all four of them stiff. Another one like it came a few seconds later, and before long it proved to be the start of a series of rumbles. Birds scattered from trees flew overhead, headed south, and provided the only other noise in the forest until they were gone. That silence was shortly replaced by the awful grinding of stone — and the unmistakable guttural outbursts of Grimm. As they watched, two Geist-bearing Petra Gigas lumbered into view from the north — effectively they were bipedal mountains. In fact, they were _so_ tall that juvenile Nevermores — vicious-looking black birds with white armored masks and clawed appendages on their wing joints — were perched on their detached shoulders. Unlike most Grimm, these titanic beasts weren't black; they were made of the same mossy green stone as the ruins, complete with studs of crystallized metal. The only indication of their Grimm status was the white, single-eyed mask at the center of the stones which served as their heads. None of them had ever seen monsters this large, but Weiss and Blake failed more completely at restraining their terror than Ruby and Yang. Neither girl could tear her eyes away, nor induce her muscles to react. Nearby monsters in the trees howled an alert in response to their fear.

"We need to go," Ruby said lowly. She didn't hear anyone attempt to move. "Guys. Just turn and leave."

"Gods help us," Weiss breathed, dumbstruck by the size of the creatures. One of the rocky giants turned its yellow eye toward her and her blood became ice. "It—it sees me…"

Yang finally reconnected her brain to her limbs, grabbed Weiss and Blake by a shoulder a piece, and flung them around on their heels. "Forget it!" she snapped as the little Nevermores took off from their mobile perches in pursuit. "Trees! Now!"

They hurled themselves into the embrace of the forest and put the rising sun on their right in order to head south. Grimm emerged from the trees to follow them; while their numbers were less than Ruby and her team had seen in the last trial, to a monster all of them were more mature varieties of their species than the hordes of juveniles they fought last time around. This posed different problems — they were more intelligent beasts. A few large Ursae maneuvered ahead of the four girls and smacked trees to the ground with their ivory claws. The roadblock forced them to turn east. They ended up stuck going in that direction as Beowolves from the south tried to intercept them before they could build up speed again. All the while, the gargantuan footsteps of the two Petra Gigas rattled their spines.

"They're trying to funnel us somewhere!" Ruby noted loudly. "Don't let them! Go south!" One of the young Nevermores dove on them from above, but a stout tree managed to defeat it for the moment. There were so many targets crawling around that Ruby couldn't decide where to aim. "Do whatever it takes!"

For three of them, this meant the use of their Semblances. For Yang, it meant feeding her gauntlets a belt of fire-tipped shells and pointing her fists backwards. Weiss ejected a set of Glyphs to enhance their forward momentum without flinging them into a tree trunk. "I'm going above the trees!" she advised. "I can get more speed in the air!"

"No! There are Never—" Ruby fell silent as she watched the prickly girl disappear upward on a staircase of those fuzzy white discs. "Oh no. Ohhhhhh no this is bad." Even worse, Blake followed her on a swing of her black ribbon. "Don't split up! No!"

"Forget it," Yang advised as she rocketed past with the explosive help of her Dust ammunition. "It might be easier to deal with this if we pull 'em apart anyway."

"But—but!" Ruby's eyes slammed shut in frustration for just an instant. "Please don't die," she breathed a minute later. She then became a crimson smear to catch up with her sister.

Above them, Weiss gained her desired space, but something else came in the bargain: attention. The amount and intensity of Glyphs she needed to deploy to actually _fly_ left her almost completely defenseless against the Nevermores that dove on her. Terrified shrieks heralded explosive discharges of Dust powder as she defended herself from the birds — while she managed to catch one of them on fire, two more swept down to replace it as it crashed into the trees. One bore down upon her with claws extended for the kill; before it could arrive, however, a black ribbon wrapped around its neck. Blake arced into the fight, gun blazing whenever she could aim the thing properly. The Nevermore she used as leverage clipped into a tree with her influence and fell out of the fight. "Blake!" she screamed, but the Faunus was gone again to set up another leap. Weiss deposited another Glyph ahead of herself and passed through it, repelled by the opposite charge against her Aura — and right into another diving Nevermore. The beast couldn't react fast enough to get a claw on her, but the impact was like flying into a wall. Weiss felt Aura-guided iron slide forward under her skin just in time to absorb most of that hit, but her precious velocity was gone. Too stunned to lay another Glyph, she fell into a tree and hit every branch on the way down with a grunt or a gasp until her body draped heavily across a girthy limb halfway down its trunk. By some miracle, her rapier was still in her left hand.

"Ow," was the first noise to emerge from between her clenched teeth. "Ow, ow, ow, ow…" All the breath had been knocked out of her body, but with it went her ability to be afraid — at least for a moment. The Grimm, with no sight of her and no emotion to track, either stopped where they were to search or started to chase other targets. Weiss saw three Ursae pass beneath her in a stampede and decided to lay still for now. "Agh…"

"Weiss!" she heard Blake yell, though she wasn't in any shape to figure out her exact location. "Weiss! Where are you?!"

She pulled herself into an unsteady crouch on the branch and grabbed her Scroll — mostly to see if it worked, _then_ to use it to try and contact Blake. Fortunately, it powered on without any apparent issues. A wince crinkled her face when she saw how much Aura she'd already used. "This isn't going to work." Gunfire in the distance caught her ears. One weapon definitely sounded like Ruby's cherished rifle. The other report must have belonged to Yang, she determined, because the sounds seemed to be the same distance away. Meanwhile, the sharp pops of Blake's pistol followed a crazy path around her. She was the closest of the three by far.

And while that was good news, Weiss had no clue had she'd actually contact her. She focused on her physical pain to resist any mental distress on her way back up the tree to get a better look at the fight. Once she peeked above the leaves, two things became apparent — Ruby and Yang's location, thanks to a repeatedly-diving flock of three Nevermores and the accompanying gunfire that drove them off, and the fact that the two Gigas were almost on the scene. Weiss planted her feet on the sturdiest branch she could find and looked for any sign of Blake. To her horror, another one of the damned birds had the answer; Blake was plastered to its underside as it flew a drunken path through the morning air. Two more of the winged beasts were engaged in a pursuit; all of Blake's effort right now was on shooting at them to keep them at bay. Desperate to help her, Weiss patted the numerous white pouches on her belt and produced a yellow Dust crystal. Her analytical mind went to work as she stared at it. If they could clear the sky, then…

Priming and throwing the crystal at this range was impossible, but Weiss had a stroke of genius — or abject stupidity, she couldn't decide — and switched the rotary mechanism of her rapier to its store of fire Dust powder. She primed the yellow crystal at length in her hand and carefully balanced it in front of one of the ejection ports, then assumed a stance like an archer — blade loosely across her chest and left arm drawn back as if holding a bowstring, with her right arm parallel along the weapon's edge and extended toward her target. Her movement was almost as limited as her time as the crystal began to glow. "Come on," she breathed, eyes drying as she stared at the fight, waiting for her chance. The three birds flashed across her path and she unleashed hell. " _Now_!" she screamed, her cry a direct command to her Aura to focus as much as it could on deflecting the explosion of Dust that came next. Fire roared down her blade, hurling the crystal along ahead of it until it left her makeshift gun, where it passed through a tiny Glyph. She hoped the residual Aura charge on the crystal would react with it and propel it faster.

Based on the flatness of its path, her gamble paid off. The crystal flew through the air — not as fast as a bullet, but certainly much faster than she could have thrown it — and struck one of the trailing Nevermores with an outburst of lightning that knocked it right out of the sky. It was the window Blake needed to deliver a final slash to the throat of the Nevermore whose belly she then rode into the forest below. Both birds impacted with a terrific crash. The remaining bird pulled up to avoid their fate and lost track of its prey.

"It worked!" Weiss gasped. " _It worked_!" Too bad the Grimm below her now knew where to look thanks to her Dust discharge. The tree shook under her feet as their claws tore at the bark. "Oh, buzz off." She primed an orange Dust crystal in a more traditional way and dropped it while boosting herself clear on a Glyph. "Blake!" she yelled as the lava engulfed many of the beasts behind her. "Blake! Where are you?!"

"Get off of me!" she heard Blake scream.

Her terror was as good of a propellant for Weiss as the latest Glyph she laid. She aimed for spaces between trees and became a pallid rocket, lacing whipped strikes of her rapier across whatever Grimm she passed by close enough to hit. She found Blake a few seconds later, struggling on the forest floor with a fully-grown Boarbatusk. Gambol Shroud lay out of her reach on the ground. Knowing she couldn't pierce its armor reliably in ideal circumstances, much less with it on top of a wounded and bleeding Blake, Weiss opted for the only other plan she could think of: knock it down. She became the wrecking ball with a shriek and one more glowing, high-intensity Glyph.

Blake heard her, but only saw her arrive when she crashed into the side of the beast and sent it tumbling off to the side. She hurled herself upright, snatched her weapon off the ground, and filled the monster's belly full of bullets as it squealed and struggled to get back onto its hooves. Her attention went to Weiss next. She laid in a pile on the ground. "Weiss!"

"Unnnnnnh…" she groaned. Hitting the Nevermore was bad enough; this collision felt more like she'd just flown into an entire city block's worth of buildings. "I think I broke something." No time to suffer, however — more Grimm were on their way. Weiss began to prime and chuck Dust crystals with her good arm. "We need to find Ruby and Yang!"

"Yeah, I know!" Blake covered Weiss with pistol fire until she could get back to her feet. "They're south of—" A giant stone crashed through the trees above and nearly flattened them both — one of the Petra Gigas had arrived. This was its makeshift foot. As before, the strange stone twisted their Auras like corkscrews. "Damn it!"

"Throw crystals and run!" Weiss advised, breathless with the pain in her right arm. "One of us has to get far enough away to call for help!"

Blake primed and threw a white Dust crystal over her shoulder as they ran on unsteady steps toward the distant gunfire in the trees. "Do our Scrolls even work?"

A series of bells from one of Weiss' pouches — her low Aura alert tone — answered that question before the girl herself could. "Yes. Yes they do." She silenced the device. Immediately afterward, both girls reflexively ducked when a bullet whistled past their heads. "What the—"

"Sorry!" they heard Ruby yell up ahead.

"You absolute idiot!" Weiss snapped joyfully. When they arrived, they found the sisters back-to-back in a small clearing, pinned down by some Grimm but not in immediate danger of being overrun. "We have to leave, the big ones are right behind us."

"We know, we feel their footsteps." Yang's fists struck out in turn at the open mouths of attacking Beowolves; each punch filled their jaws with fragments of shotgun shells and payloads of hot lava. "Man, take me with you the next time you go to that shop. I wanna kiss the owner."

"Seriously, we should at least write them a thank-you note or _something_." Ruby slammed another box of Model 61 ammo into Crescent Rose's magazine well. She noticed Weiss fighting with one arm after firing another shot, as well as both girls' torn clothing and copious numbers of scrapes and scratches. "Um. What happened?"

"I had to improvise to help Blake." Weiss jammed her rapier into an Ursa's eye and bounced backwards with the help of a shadow distortion from the Faunus. "I'm almost out of Aura again. Ideas?"

"Somebody needs to call for reinforcements." Yang loaded belts of ice Dust shot into her gauntlets. The short barrels glowed red — a testament to how much she'd been firing her guns. "At least there aren't nearly as many of these little fuckers as last time. I think we've got an opening to the south. We should take it." She paused first to impale a charging young Beowolf through the jaw with her icy ammunition, then to catch herself as a Gigas' step made all four stumble. The close range of the strange stone which made up the monster contorted all of their Auras and left them tingling. " _Shit._ If we can't get away from these things, we won't be able to call _anyone_ for help!"

Blake waved for them all to leave as she launched another murky double. "I'll drop decoys behind us. Weiss, you could try since you know your Scroll works."

All four of them ran with whatever stamina they had left. "If I can get enough space, all right." Weiss retrieved her device and led their retreat. Using it with one hand, however, wasn't easy. She checked the map between tosses of Dust crystals at the enemy; its screen flickered every time a Gigas' rocky foot crashed through the trees behind them. "Pyrrha's team is the closest by a long way."

"Oh man, I really don't wanna drag them into this…" Ruby fired a blind shot over her shoulder for effect and a slight boost of speed. "Not with these big guys around."

Yang shotgunned herself toward Blake to intercept a quick little Ursa. She put it down with a dropkick and sprinted back into the group. "We ain't got much of a choice, sis," she said between gasps of air. "Besides, if Nora is still fresh, she might be the only person that can put a dent in those things."

"Eight of us is better than four, no matter what," Weiss decided. "I'm going to let them know."

* * *

Pyrrha's squad was already somewhat aware of their plight. The redhead herself hovered just above the treeline in the magnetic grip of her Semblance, watching as the two Gigas stormed through the forest with their Nevermore consorts. What she didn't know was the identity of their targets, nor if there were other Grimm in the trees she couldn't see. Keen to preserve her Aura, she stayed only for a few seconds before returning to the tree branches and climbing down to her team. "I think they're coming this way," she said.

"Petra Gigas are made of stone. I don't know if I can hurt them with my hammer even if I pop a crystal." Nora — a cut across her forearm from the sole Grimm skirmish of note they'd so far had this morning — twisted her weapon into its grenade launcher form. "Buuuuuut these Type 24s might be able to do some serious damage."

"If we choose to face them. I'm not sure we want to do that just yet." Pyrrha's head jerked away from the north abruptly, green eyes wide as if she'd seen another threat.

"What?" Jaune looked that way as well; no Grimm or other students were in sight. "You've been doing that since we got here. What's wrong?"

"I…" The redhead shook it off and looked toward Nora and Ren. "Never mind. I'll have a plan in mind if we need one. For now, let's just keep quiet."

"Works for me." Nora skipped along ahead of them. "At least we're still fresh."

"Yeah, where _are_ all of the Grimm?" Jaune shrank a bit when the two girls looked his way. "Not complaining. Just saying. It's real quiet."

"True—" Pyrrha jumped as her Scroll rang. "Ah! Oh. Who could this be?" Once she had the device to her ear, Weiss' gasped words stopped her in her tracks. Static complicated her attempts to understand them. "Weiss? What's—slow down, I can hardly hear you. Where are—" She fell silent to listen until her eyes bulged. "They're chasing _you_?!"

Nora came back when she heard those words. "Uh oh."

"Keep running south. I'll meet you as soon as I can." Pyrrha hung up and looked at her team. "We have a slight problem."

"I guess we need that plan now, huh?" Jaune asked, reading the look on her face.

"Ah, well…" She rubbed the back of her neck with an awkward smile. "Yes. Those monsters are chasing Ruby's team. And we do kind of owe them our lives, so..."

"We gotta go help," Nora confirmed. She needed no other reason to fight and was already on her way to assist. "So let's book it!"

Jaune fell in with them as they ran, although he couldn't keep his nervousness from showing. "Uh, what should I do when we get there? I really don't wanna get in the way."

"Stay back and throw crystals," Pyrrha advised. "That's why I bought you so many. Just keep your distance and we'll be fine."

"And try to watch where you're aiming, skinny boy!" Nora added through a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll yell when I throw."

The reason they hadn't encountered much combat shadowed their movements from about a hundred meters behind them. Opher dashed from trunk to trunk in pursuit, silently berating himself for the level of unseen interference he'd undertaken so far. He had no answers about Pyrrha because he wouldn't let the question get asked; he blamed his gruesome trip beyond Vale's wall for that skittishness and resolved silently to let the redhead fight on her own this time. Plans whirled together in his head about when to intervene, if he needed to, and what weapon would be best-suited to the task. Two minutes later, Pyrrha and her team merged with Grimm storming north in response to the emotions of Ruby's squad. Since the monsters had their backs turned, Opher was content to let the four kids fight this one out for the moment.

"Let's clear them a path!" Pyrrha ordered. She slid to a stop, twirling her weapon into its javelin form. She performed a thumbs-up with her outstretched left arm to use the digit as a makeshift iron sight; the javelin departed her right hand with a crack of fire Dust and streaked into the back of an Ursa. The beast dropped mid-stride and tumbled into a tree.

Opher studied them as the battle unfolded. Pyrrha retrieved her weapon with an unseen force he couldn't identify from here, though he saw the black glow that clung to her hand as it returned. As the Grimm turned away from the north to fall upon them instead, he watched Nora crush a yellow Dust crystal in her hand and soak up its electricity. Her hammer crashed through the air and deformed every beast it touched into a macabre, slumping pile of black matter against the soil. Meanwhile, the redhead appeared to be the most competent fighter overall in her team — from a marksmanship standpoint, her skill was unmatched, and thanks to Indigo's ammunition, every shot she fired had some effect. Nora might have had more raw physical strength, but Pyrrha was more well-rounded.

More than that, however, the redhead was in command. "Jaune, watch your left!"

"Oh, yeah." He primed and threw a white Dust crystal at the encroaching horde, which got engulfed by ice a moment later. "Got them!"

"Good! You're doing just fine. Stay with me." Pyrrha fired from the hip with one hand and threw her shield with the other; against these targets, its razor-sharp edge had much more effect than it did against Death Stalker carapace. Opher watched a charging Beowolf lose one of its legs and fall down right in front of Nora, who drove its head into the ground with her hammer.

"Hey, this is going pretty good!" Nora looked up into the trees where Ren had gone to provide fire support. "Ren, what's the story?"

"Nothing to report," was his barely-audible reply. More rounds from his pistols tore from the leaves and into the exposed backs of a sleuth of small Ursae.

Nora flashed a thumbs-up to her teammates. "He likes the bullets."

"Yes, well, be judicious," Pyrrha cautioned. "We need to save our stores for the fight ahead." She watched Nora execute an underhanded swing so potent it knocked one Beowolf back into a cluster of its kin like a bowling pin. When the fight came back her way, she fired her rifle at a couple of Creeps which got too close to Jaune — afterward, she bunched their group back together, desperate to keep Yang's metaphorical snowball rolling uphill as long as possible. "Let's not get too spread out."

"I see Weiss!" Jaune yelled a minute later.

The girl stumbled to an exhausted halt in front of the four of them, her right arm still hanging limply at her side. "We can't stay here," she gasped, "the big ones are made of some kind of stone that affects our Auras." She cast a look back over her shoulder at the approaching gunfire that signaled the location of her teammates. "And they're tearing a hole through the woods for more Grimm."

Pyrrha's heart sank as she listened. "No, not again…" Ruby and Yang were now visible, as were the shrieking hordes of monsters in pursuit — further still, the rhythmic crash of Gigas steps pierced the trees, as did their arms to clear a path for smaller beasts to join the chase. "Fighting retreat!" she ordered. "Until I can think of something else!"

The five of them waited just long enough for Ruby and Yang to catch up before their noisy withdrawal began. "Blake's right behind us, just go!" Ruby said between shots of Crescent Rose to buy them a little space. "Do any of your Scrolls work?"

"I'll check." Jaune, as the least-occupied person, examined his. "It won't turn on!"

Yang's fists were blurs as she fired at approaching monsters. "Whatever these things are made of is fucking with our Scrolls too!"

Nora had given up on her hammer for now and launched grenades downrange instead. These weren't the Type 24s — they exploded pink whenever they struck something. She saved those rounds for more urgent times. "So we _can't_ call for help?"

"Don't panic!" Pyrrha watched Blake swing down from the branches and sprint over to catch up with them. Her brain sizzled with desperation as she tried to come up with a plan. "Wait. I have an idea."

"I'm listening!" Ruby fired another shot over her shoulder; based on the roar, she must have hit something. "I don't think we can run forever."

"Defense in depth."

Yang cocked her head. "What?"

"Ren can completely hide himself from the Grimm, but we need to give him a chance to get out of their sight first. We'll split up by Aura reserves and delay them until he can leave." Pyrrha's next words were to Ren directly. "As soon as we get set up, go west. Call the teachers as soon as you're able." He nodded once in reply.

"I haven't used my Semblance much," Ruby said thoughtfully. "And I have plenty of ammo left. I can be in the first line."

"Yeah, with me." Yang shook the pain out of her hands and stood with her sister. "You're not telling me no, so don't bother."

Pyrrha looked back over her shoulder at the black tide; their numbers hadn't increased much, but she had no idea what kind of tsunami the Gigas might be bringing with them. "That's three of us. Blake, Nora, Jaune, you'll be the second line."

"Shouldn't I be up front to help distract the Grimm?" the Faunus asked.

Ruby now understood Pyrrha's reasoning and waved off Blake's concern. "No, Jaune's gonna need your help and I think Nora has the most firepower. We'll be fine. They can throw ordnance over our heads while you keep them safe."

This left only Weiss. "What about me?"

The redhead deferred to Ruby with a nod, so she issued instructions. "Run around and stay out of sight. Throw crystals. Maybe drop us an escape Glyph if you've got the Aura. Just stay hidden and keep breathing. I don't want them to detect you."

They all came to a stop when the trees thinned out slightly to set up their lines. "I really don't like the idea of leaving Ren by himself," Nora stated through a huge scowl.

"We don't have much choice. I don't know how long he'll have to stay hidden. He'll need all the Aura he has." Pyrrha brandished javelin and shield to face the beasts with Ruby and Yang at her side. "Split up, now! Ren, go!"

He disappeared into the woods as they split up. Weiss left their sight as well, safe behind a stout tree trunk in preparation to ambush the Grimm. "Is this really gonna work?" Ruby asked. She stared down her scope and waited for a good opening shot.

"Bigger, slower targets. Not as many as last time. We just have to kill what we can." Yang didn't even flinch as Ruby opened fire. Her first shot dropped the Ursa it hit. "There you go. Just do what you do best. We've got your back."

"Thin them out." The redhead threw her javelin to take down a Beowolf. "One at a time."

"We're gonna back up slowly to stay away from the big ones!" Ruby yelled over her shoulder. "Nice and slow! Everyone move together!"

They retreated at a snail's pace. Ruby and Pyrrha picked off one monster at a time, while Yang punched any Grimm unlucky enough to get in range of either girl. Meanwhile, Nora and Jaune lofted grenades and crystals over their heads with varying levels of expertise, while Weiss did the same from behind random tree trunks. Blake moved between their lines to drop a decoy or to provide a distraction with her pistol. While they were still being pushed back, it was on _their_ terms, not the Grimm's.

"It _is_ working!" Ruby blurted out as she loaded another magazine. She glanced up and realized too late that their cover from the Nevermores was becoming sparse. "Wait… we can't be out in the open!"

She looked back when rounds stopped flying from their rear guard and found awful news. They'd been pushed into a fat round clearing and were now surrounded by monsters in the treeline. Jaune, Nora, Blake, and Weiss had their weapons pointed the other way. While bigger Grimm meant slower and fewer enemies, it also meant smarter ones. The beasts had them completely outflanked.

"Shit," Yang hissed around her raised fists. "They baited us anyway. We should have kept going east."

"Welp!" Nora loaded her Type 24s at last and took a deep breath. "Pyrrha, I think we need a new idea."

There was no chance for her to come up with one. The ebony horde charged from all sides, backed by the remaining juvenile Nevermores from above — the seven children were now trapped at the center of a collapsing bubble of Grimm. Bullets, crystals, grenades, even Pyrrha's shield went flying in defense, but to little avail; even with their higher-power ammunition, every charging beast they killed was replaced by another from behind as the noose closed around them.

"Oh, gods damn it!" Yang shrieked, whipping her fists forward to trigger shotgun bursts whose effects varied from gruesome against the unarmored little Ursae, to pointless against fully-grown Beowolves. She threw primed Dust crystals from her pouches, causing eruptions of fire and earth which helped to stifle the Grimm only briefly. "Fuck! It's not working!"

Weiss, to her side, flung every crystal in her possession with one good arm until her scant Aura reserves broke from priming them and she dropped to one knee. "I'm... I'm out!" she gasped, struggling to stay even halfway upright. Blake was there in a second, using her body to shield the heiress and shooting relentlessly with her pistol. "No, get away from me and help Nora! She has more firepower!"

"I won't leave you!" Blake shouted. "I'll prime the crystals, you throw them! We need obstacles over here too!"

"Are you insane?!" she screamed back. Both girls ducked as a grenade went flying over their heads, then again as it exploded in a deformed flowery bloom of red-hot lava which stuck several monsters to the ground with its viscosity, setting them on fire. "See what I mean?!"

"Stop arguing!" Pyrrha bellowed loudly; she had to be loud to be heard over the screech of Creep claws against her hoplite shield. A terrified Jaune was right behind her, using his own shield as side armor for the redhead. "Nora! Put one right in front of me!"

The girl was busy cramming more Type 24s into her weapon as fast as she could. "I can't! I'll hit you too!"

"Oh man, oh man, I don't wanna die," Jaune whined lowly.

"They'll have to kill me first," she reassured him between sharp breaths. " _Nora_! _Don't just stand there_!" she screamed again. A grenade finally came in, whose detonation sent flecks of molten rock pelting against her shield. "We're fine! Keep shooting!"

"I'm out of fucking shells!"

Pyrrha snapped a glance over her shoulder at Yang. "No..."

As their ammunition dwindled, the Grimm hordes only swelled, drawn close by the rising terror in their hearts. Nora launched every special grenade she could in all possible directions, providing a volcanic barrier which stopped their endless tides only until the living monsters crawled over their dying kin to reach the human feast they encircled. The range of combat became microscopic on the redhead's side of the field; clashing of bone and sword dominated the air until screams of pain when claws struck flesh took its place instead, interrupted only by Nora and Pyrrha's primal shrieks as they swung their weapons. Blake joined that chorus as her stores ran dry. So did Yang, though her first attack went into Ruby, knocking her back so she could keep enough space to shoot her powerful gun.

"Stay in the center!" the blonde warned her, just before driving her fist into a charging young Beowolf. "Shoot! Ruby! Shoot!"

Unnerved by the sounds of their imminent death, she struggled with the target-rich environment. Nervousness sent her bullets wide repeatedly until two of the giant birds dove upon her sister, who was occupied with a hand-to-claw fight against another juvenile Beowolf and had no warning of the threat above. "Yang! No! _Yang_!" Her anxiousness boiled into terror, then vaporized into abject panic as their talons drew closer. She couldn't unfurl Crescent Rose fast enough, defeated by her leaden muscles and a lack of breath, and a _tremendous_ , abrupt headache to boot. No, not just a headache — her eyes felt as if they were about to burst. Her screaming distorted into a noise that none of them would have ever identified as a human's voice had they not looked at its source. A white flash blinded them all — not even a second's worth of that light left the pleasant warmth of a million summer days embracing their skin. Silence followed.

Yang recovered first from the event and looked over to find her sister on the ground, hands over her eyes and shaking furiously. "Ruby?!" It was only after she dove to cover her sister's vulnerable body that she realized the Grimm had stopped moving. They still existed, but were stationary in both their places and their poses. The Nevermores had fallen to the ground. "What… what is this?"

"W-what happened?" Pyrrha stammered, shield up in preparation for an attack that never came. Everyone relaxed from their defensive terror and actually _looked_ at the monsters, which is when they finally saw the spikes of ice that impaled all of the Grimm. They began to vaporize into eldritch smoke. "Weiss? Did you—"

"Absolutely not!" she said, gobsmacked at the display. "I can't prime that amount of Dust at full Aura, much less—"

"You know, I think I've seen enough."

Everyone turned toward the voice save Yang — who was far too busy tending to Ruby — and Pyrrha, who already knew to whom those words belonged by Aura presence alone. Opher stood in the middle of their loose circle with both hands jammed into the pockets of his black cargo pants. After a moment, he produced his crumpled-up white camo boonie from one of them and put it on. "No point not wearing this now, I guess," he sighed, unable to lay eyes on the battered, bleeding redhead for more than a second. The sight turned his stomach. While the other kids weren't in much better shape, at least they didn't look like Carmine. "Not having a good morning, huh?"

"Who are you?" Weiss demanded shakily.

"It's… it's you," Blake added, finally recognizing the stranger as the courier from a few hours before.

Pyrrha completed the spectrum of reactions as she turned to face him. "Opher."

Yang hadn't put two and two together yet; she was far too busy trying to help Ruby stand. She grimaced as she watched her sister's Aura break. "We need to go while we can. Ruby's in trouble." The girl's low Aura alert tone played until Yang fumbled with and shut off her Scroll. Then her eyes went to the advancing Gigas in the distance. "And the big ones are still coming." Only when Opher stepped past her did she look up. "Wait… who the fuck are you? You're not a teacher."

"No, I'm not." He raised his left arm and mimicked the pose Pyrrha used to aim, though no weapon was in his right hand until a gigantic icicle condensed — seemingly from thin air — in its grasp. It flew with the combined crack of an unseen discharge of electric and fire Dust. The frozen spear traveled so fast that the Gigas couldn't lift its heavy arms in time to block; it pierced the eye of the mask, killed the Geist, and sent its possessed rocks crashing noisily to the ground. A cloud of dust rose in its place a moment later.

None of them could muster a response to this display until the redhead, bruised hands on her hips, quipped awkwardly, "You have nice form."

Opher allowed himself a little smirk. "Yeah, well, I learned from an expert." Still holding his aim, he prepared another spear for the second Gigas.

"What was that sound? Is everyone—" Ruby gasped as Yang helped her stand. She got her eyes open just in time to see Opher wind up to launch his icy harpoon. "—okay? Ummmm…" She watched him throw the spear and dispatch the second Gigas as effortlessly as he had the first. " _Excuse me_?! Shop guy?!"

"Yeah! What she said!" Nora sprinted up to Pyrrha and Opher. " _This_ is the guy you met in Vale? He's a twig just like Jaune! This doesn't make sense!"

Jaune folded his arms with mock annoyance. "I resent that remark, but, yes, you're also not wrong."

Yang looked around at the forest of ice spikes that now existed where the dying Grimm had once been. "This was all you? The flash? The ice?"

Opher's muted green eyes met Ruby's wide silver ones for a moment. "She has… son of a bitch," he breathed quietly. A bit louder, he added, "I don't know about the flash either. Wasn't me. As for the ice, well, take a guess."

Ruby broke their eye contact and stepped away for some air. "Agh, my throat hurts. And did someone kick me _directly_ in the eyeballs? Ow."

Weiss discarded her internal questions about the light in favor of something she could still see and moved away to examine one of the icy spikes. "None of this is possible. I would need an airship's worth of Dust to manage a discharge this size. _If_ it didn't Aura break me outright. How could you—"

"She has a very strange way of saying 'thanks'," Opher remarked to Pyrrha.

"Oh, it's all right. I suppose we're all a little… confused, at the moment." The redhead eyed her friends and found that statement to be correct — save for Nora, who was now too occupied by getting in touch with Ren to care. "Thank you for your help, but what are you doing out here?"

Opher, hands shoved in his pockets, began to walk north away from them. "I was answering a question," were his only words.

"Wait!" Blake called. "You can't go that way! There are still Grimm coming!"

They were already emerging from the trees when he slowed to a lazy stop. "Uh huh." One sweep of his right hand and many of the monsters burst into flame as they ran. A flick of fingers on his left impaled others on precise ejections of ice from the soil. Sixty seconds later, the flow of Grimm stopped and Opher turned around to walk back to the others. He found them in various states of readiness — Yang had her fists up, while most of the others with weapons had them raised as well, but Ruby was too startled — and in pain — to bother. "Congratulations. You killed all the Grimm."

Jaune dropped his sword and shield in utter shock about the same time Nora blurted out a "Huh?"

"I'm saying I'd appreciate it if you kept this quiet." His hands were back in his pockets again.

"Why _wouldn't_ you want everyone to know?!" a dumbfounded Blake asked. "You'd be a hero! You're clearly—"

A blank gaze silenced her rant before it really got started. "I don't want the damn attention." It was a bit late for that, but the only way he could guarantee everyone's safety was to get in the middle of the fight, and even then it wasn't a sure thing. The flash had helped him more than he was willing to admit; he tacked on a joke to hide this fact. "Besides, I'm only out here to keep an eye on Indigo's new favorite customers."

Yang, bearing Ruby's weight on her left shoulder, eyed him with suspicion. "So you want us to lie, because… why? You could walk into Beacon right now and become a teacher."

Ruby weakly backed up her sister's statement. "Yeah. Why the heck do you work in a Dust shop? You're… you're a wizard."

"That's really none of your business, is it? Besides, I didn't do anything you're not capable of doing," he corrected her. And while he'd left a dozen truckloads of caveats out of that sentence, Opher wasn't lying; his display had been Dust only, with no usage of the true art.

"But…" Ruby sucked in a breath and hid her eyes to try and make the pain subside. "There are Hunters that would kill for power like yours."

Opher turned his back on them so they wouldn't see the utter resignation on his face. "And I would die to let them have it," he mumbled to himself. After he managed to collect himself, he feigned a bored expression and addressed them again. "Based on the looks on your faces, I think I'd rather keep this to myself. I can't imagine what a whole school or a Kingdom would think if they saw this shit." Awkward, silent squirming from the kids seemed to confirm his point. "Exactly. So, like I said, congratulations. _You_ killed all the Grimm."

"Are you crazy?" Weiss snapped at him. "Nobody would believe us!"

He regarded her with lidded eyes. "Why not? The Grimm are gone. The ice is gonna be gone soon. The only evidence left is this cooled-off lava and the stones all the way over there — plus whatever story you choose to tell your teachers."

"But—!"

"Weiss, it's all right." Pyrrha extended her hand to Opher. "He _did_ just help us. I think it's a small favor to ask in return." She smiled as best she could when he shook her hand.

"She's got a point, I guess," Jaune added. "I'm on board."

"Fine, whatever." Yang folded her arms and scowled; her attention went to the larger matter at hand. "Wait, we still have an hour to go. You're not just gonna ditch us, are you?" She glanced over as Ruby stumbled away from her side. "Hey, take it easy."

"He should go help the other teams," she said firmly. "It's not fair. We've been bailed out twice now. The other kids deserve help too."

"Ruby…" Yang approached her, but a raised hand from her sister stopped her short. In the silence that followed, they all looked to Opher for an answer.

His gaze went to Pyrrha, though she had no clue why and said nothing. Opher chose not to deny Ruby with the redhead watching and shrugged. "I don't see why not. I'll do a quick run on my way back to Beacon, but I ain't gonna stay long. I need to get back to Vale."

"You're awfully flippant about this," Weiss stated cooly as she tried to work some motion back into her injured right shoulder. "You can't have much Aura left after what you've done."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Pyrrha had direct, if unseen evidence: his Aura hadn't weakened at all, at least not to any extent she could detect. She glanced to the woods as Ren emerged and rejoined their group. "Ah, good, we're all present and accounted for!" Nora greeted him with a cascade of cheers and, of course, a painful-looking hug.

Opher glanced at their reunion for a moment, then took the chance to head for the treeline without another word.

"Hey, wait a second!" Yang yelled after him. "Don't just leave _us_ hangin' here, man!" He paid her no mind whatsoever.

"Oh, forget it," Nora said. "Let's just follow him before more Grimm show up."

"Right," Pyrrha agreed, "and while we're together, we can figure out what kind of story to tell the professors when we get back."

Blake examined the scrapes on her arms and frowned. "We shouldn't lie."

"I don't think I wanna annoy him after what we just saw," Jaune stated. "If he wants to lay low, let him. I'm a little more worried about Ruby right now, anyway. She doesn't look so good."

They all glanced her way. With her eyes still hidden by her hand, it was up to Yang to guide her safely along. "I'm fine," she grumbled. "I just have a headache."

* * *

Ozpin watched Glynda pace back and forth in front of his desk with all the emotion of a statue. She'd started upon learning Ruby and her team had ended up close to the ruins and hadn't stopped since — that was over four hours ago. "Glynda, please," he finally said, "there's nothing you can do about it besides chastise the pilot, which you've already done, twice."

"There's plenty I could do if you'd _let me go out there_ ," a narrow-eyed Glynda fired back at him.

His face remained stony. "You aren't a Huntress anymore. You're the Assistant Headmaster of this Academy. You of all people should realize that you can't go out and save every single person during every single trial. You will _die_ trying."

Glynda's anger swelled almost to bursting as she approached his desk. "That's just about the same damned line you gave me when you offered me this job." Her words failed to move him, as usual. " _Perhaps_ if we actually tried to teach these children instead of letting _natural selection_ do it for us, then—"

"Enough!" he bellowed, so loud that she stepped back. Calmness returned when he spoke again. "We've had this argument a hundred times and we'll have it a hundred more. I cannot force Her Majesty to pour resources into a bottomless pit when she's hellbent on filling the coffers of the Army to keep Vale proper secure."

"A bottomless pit." Glynda stepped away and stared out one of the grand windows, her eyes shielded against the sun. "More like an open grave."

"Be practical, Glynda. We are doing the Kingdom a service by extracting these children from its population and putting them to _some_ use." He paused to join her at the window, though made no mention of it when she put more space between them. "If we leave them in Vale and in Patch, they will get _everyone_ killed eventually. At least this way we give hope to the exiled and a goal toward which the unwanted may strive. Safely. Away from everyone else."

"There has to be a better way."

"I wish it were so." Ozpin said no more as the first airship returning from the Emerald Forest landed and disgorged its passengers. "Two full teams," he noted.

"Six full teams," Glynda noted after two more airships landed and did the same. "Plus Polendina and Soleil." Another airship landed as the first flew away. "Seven full teams?" The final airship to land disembarked a surprise: Pyrrha, Ruby, and their complete squads. She couldn't restrain her relief. "What—they made it back! All of them! Every single one!"

Ozpin found himself just as stunned, though for vastly different reasons. Behind his stoic mask, he began to formulate a way to address what he viewed as a burgeoning problem. "Indeed. It looks like I may have been right about Miss Rose after all."


	7. The Grimm Reapers

"You got back late from Beacon, didn't you?"

Opher — holed up in his room at the inn and busy looking at apartment listings to reduce the amount he'd need to lie when Indigo asked him about the rest of his day so far — allowed his eyes to narrow a bit. "I had to wait for the combat trial to end so airships could land. Not that it mattered. I decided to sleep in a little since I didn't have anywhere to be."

She prefaced her answer with a snicker. "Lazy. Found a place to live yet?"

"I don't think I can afford one. Perhaps you should give me a raise." This was equal parts jest and truth; most of the apartments in his price range were clear across the city. He might attempt to convert the remaining gold he still kept in his duffel bag, but wasn't sure how to do so or even if he could without drawing suspicion. He waited for Indigo's belly laugh to subside before adding, "Seriously, don't you think that's why nobody responded to your job opening but me? I knew I wouldn't be making my old salary, but damn."

His boss became immensely huffy for just an instant. "Excuse you, I didn't know how much money Academy orders would bring in." A long pause. "But maybe you do have a point."

Genuine surprise lit up his face. "Really?"

Indigo emitted a lengthy, awkward, slightly groaning sound before she finally said, "I might have a better idea than just giving you a raise. There are a few empty apartments in my building and the owner is pretty keen to rent them out. It's a nice block. Basically brand new. South bank of the river, not too far from the shop. Wanna take a look?"

War broke out in Opher's head. One part of his brain maintained that it was stupid to get attached to people — which is how he'd ended up out in the wilderness for so long in the first place — but the other shrieked with joy about having anyone even close to a friend again. He couldn't deny her; it would be nice to do something to distract him from lingering on the images of dead mothers and their crying orphans, as well as worries about whether or not Pyrrha and her merry band of wanna-be Hunters would spill the beans about his rescue. "I guess it couldn't hurt."

Despite her best attempts to mask it, smug victoriousness now colored Indigo's tone. "I'll send you the address in a minute. It's hard to miss, the exterior's all silver and blue. I think an Atlesian company designed the place. Very fancy." Another small pause caused her voice to turn awkward and hopeful. "Oh yeah, what about that movie? We made enough last night that I ain't gonna open the shop this weekend. We can hit a late showing of, you know, whatever and miss the crowd."

 _Don't do this_ , Opher silently warned himself, but it fell upon deaf ears. For the first time in a little while, he'd had his fill of being lonely. Superstition still played a part in this conclusion; to see two familiar faces in such a short period of time felt like fate's approval of his attempt to move on — even if the Kingdoms weren't exactly what he expected. Best to enjoy it while he could. "I'm not much of a movie guy. You pick something interesting."

"Fine. Got a couple I wanna see." Another lengthy pause. "Give it about ninety minutes before you leave to come over here, okay?"

Opher's face went blank at her concerned inflection. "Why, so you can clean up?" he joked.

"Nah, it's just a good idea to stay off the streets for a little bit. I forgot today is moving day. Glad my appointment didn't take long."

"Moving day?" He rose from his bed and moved into the tiny living space so he could poke his head out the window. Sure enough, no one was on the sidewalk — highly unusual given the time of day. As he watched, a convoy of three black vans passed by with a police escort on motorbikes. These were some of the few non-taxi vehicles he'd actually seen in Vale — despite its size, not many people here seemed to own cars. "Are the streets actually closed? Should I be worried?"

There was a hesitancy in her response that he couldn't explain. "You don't know—uh, forget it. No, they're not _closed_ , closed, it's just... I'll explain when you get here."

It wasn't worth pushing the issue any further with answers promised anyway, so he let it go for now. "Okay. I'll go kill a little time, then." Something nobody on Remnant was better at doing than him, he admitted to himself.

"Yeah. See you later." And Indigo was gone. Not a minute later, she texted him her address.

Opher glanced at it before he set his Scroll aside and looked back out the window. A cursory mental sweep of the area revealed no magic pings — had his avian shadow given up the stakeout at last? If so, that was one less worry, at least, but Opher chose to restock his internal Dust supply while he waited regardless. A whole rainbow of crushed crystals went down his throat, chased by a bottle of water. While their power soaked into his veins — and his Aura smothered the deleterious effects of the crystals' poison — he watched another pair of black vans go by. "Hmm."

Almost automatically, he retreated back into his bedroom, fell onto the bed, and switched himself off for a while. The sight of the white ceiling soaked into his dead, unblinking eyes until noises wafted through the open window and caused him to return to consciousness. When Opher rose and walked over to poke his head out the window, he found a sparse crowd had returned to the sidewalks — and a new message from Indigo on his nearby Scroll, confirming that it was okay to proceed to her district now. Once he tucked the device into his pocket — and put on his usual white camouflage boonie — he did just that. To his surprise, most of the people he found out and about were police. Very few civilians roamed the muggy streets besides him. The city was quieter than usual — and that was really saying something. It felt like a tomb. With so little external distraction to speak of, Opher again wondered if Pyrrha and her friends would keep his secret. They must have so far, since nobody had come to pester him about anything. Yet.

Opher's lazy trek through the grid-work city took him south across the crystal clear river near its end; on the opposite bank he saw Indigo's apartment block, a gaudy architectural spotlight nestled among the mute gray buildings that dominated Vale. True to her word, the structure was all silver and blue; she'd left out the curious shape of it, however, which reminded him of a sail as it arced toward the west. Huge windows dotted its exterior; only a few of these seemed to have curtains or any other sort of dressing. Once he reached the block where it sat, then the base of it, he found the front door to be locked. Or, he assumed it to be the front door — the strange curved nature of the building left him unsure which end of it was which. Near the entrance he found a list of current tenants and their apartments — to his surprise, Schwarze was on it too. "Voss?" he mumbled her last name, idly poking his mind to see if he'd heard the surname before. "Hmm." He finally tapped the button under Indigo's name.

"Hello?" came her voice from a speaker. "Who is this?"

"Your apartment building looks stupid," he replied through a tiny grin.

"Oh! New guy!" A click rang out from the door next to him. "Come on up."

"Are you ever going to—" Static from the speaker told him she'd just ended their two-way communication, but Opher finished his thought anyway. "—use my actual name? Hnnh." He rubbed at his eyes and walked into the lobby.

 _Expensive_ was the only word he could find to describe its interior. The floors were some kind of tan polished stone, the walls were paneled in what he initially thought was gray tile, but turned out to be wood varnished that color, and the ceilings matched their smoky tone. All of the light fixtures were either silvery wall sconces or fully recessed ceiling units masked by white panels just translucent enough for the illumination to do its job. To his left sat a curved reception desk in the far corner — nobody was present behind it — and a few scattered chairs for visitors to wait to meet tenants. A large square structure dominated the center of the area from floor to ceiling; Opher correctly guessed that it held an elevator shaft, since no other way up into the structure was visible. Finding the button — or for that matter the doors — proved a bit harder. The whole thing seemed to be one solid piece.

At least until one side of it split in half as it opened horizontally. A woman with lavender hair stepped out and blinked at Opher's presence, realized he must be a visitor, then giggled and thumbed over her shoulder at the elevator car. "Yeah. It messed me up the first time too."

"Technology is advancing too damn fast," he grumbled, a more genuine sentiment than she'd ever know.

Seconds after he stepped into it and tapped the button, Opher found himself on the third floor. He emerged into a hallway. Most of the light wooden doors to the apartments were closed — save one to his left. Indigo had her head poked out around the frame. "What took you so long?" she asked as he walked over.

"Function following form." Opher looked past her and into the living room of her apartment. "Do they all look like this?" he added, noting the twin sofas, a huge glass coffee table, and the projection box for what must have been a substantial television on its own stand in the far corner.

"Well, they do come furnished, but not like mine. Most of this is my stuff." She waved him inside and closed the door. "How was your walk over?"

"Quiet. There's hardly anybody outside." There was no visible place to put his hat, so Opher kept wearing it and looked around. Every shelf in sight was dominated by pictures of Indigo with what appeared to be her family, or with Schwarze — but never both. Indigo sat down on one couch, so he sat on the other. Strewn, black bits of _some_ kind of machinery placed on dingy towels on the coffee table caught his eye next. "Dare I even ask what you're doing?"

"Gun maintenance." Her fingertips bore the same color dinginess as the towels — oil, Opher guessed — and before long she went back to work, fiddling with the parts. "I hope Schwarze is still asleep. If she finds out you're in here I'm never gonna hear the end of it."

He smirked briefly at this, but other things were on his mind and he had no snark to give. "Before you give me the grand tour, what exactly happened out there earlier?"

Indigo's digits came to a stop; her whole body seemed to tense up for a moment before she looked at him blankly. "You… you really don't know?" They found themselves locked in a quiet stalemate — he tried to think up an excuse for his ignorance while she asked herself why it existed in the first place. Incessant ticking of an out-of-sight clock took over noise-making duties as the seconds passed. The evolution of his expression as time slipped by caused her heart to skip a beat in all the wrong ways. "Is there something you wanna tell me?"

No answer. The longer he remained silent, the more uneasiness slipped into her chest. After a while, automatically, her subconscious nudged her into a subtle, but apparent breathing exercise. Only when he saw this did Opher realize he'd let the situation get a bit too out of hand. Instead of going with his formulated excuse immediately, he chose to lead with some truth instead. "I'm not going to lie. It's been a long time since I lived in a Kingdom."

Indigo clasped her hands in her lap, careful not to get any oil on her gaudy orange plaid skirt. "How long?"

"Since Carmine died." He could see the next question swirl to life in her eyes long before it ever reached her mouth and prepared a new lie beforehand, since explaining to her the method by which fifteen centuries had elapsed between her death and this moment was entirely impossible.

She asked it, as he expected, so gently the words only just reached his ears. "And that was… when?"

"Six years ago. We met outside the Kingdom; she did the same work I used to, looking for Dust. It's hard to make friends out there, much less find love. We hit it off immediately. A couple of years later… we're having a kid. In the middle of nowhere." Some of that statement wasn't exactly true, but he didn't need to feign his misery; thinking about this period of his life provided him with all he could ever want. He hunched over and wilted under its weight. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea, but, you know. Young and stupid. Anyway, she worked until she was too round to move — stubborn fool. And then..."

Indigo couldn't make herself look at him now. She stared into her lap instead. "I don't think I want to hear this." After a moment of silent consideration, she changed her mind. "No, I'm being selfish. Go ahead."

"Her labor pains attracted the Grimm. I wasn't at our camp when they attacked, but the rest of our crew fought them. Carmine sacrificed herself so they could get our daughter away."

" _Fuck_!" she snapped. Automatically, she started to measure her breathing to stay calm. "What happened to her after that?"

The bitter suffering that emanated from his frame snatched that breath right out of her lungs. "I got back to camp, then started looking for everyone. I found them about a day later. That's the only time I saw her. Then… I sent them back to Atlas so her crying wouldn't keep attracting the Grimm. I never went with them. I couldn't. I haven't set foot in Atlas since."

All she could do was stare at the disassembled innards of her weapon on the table in silence. "You exiled yourself?" she asked at length.

"Yes," he replied simply.

"Shit." She stood and walked a few steps away. "Did you ever find out where your daughter ended up?"

Opher decided to stare at the gray ceiling for a while. "No, and even if I knew, there's no point in me going to see her. If she ended up with another couple, they would be her parents." Anger about the real, unknown fate of his child darkened his countenance and his voice for an instant. "I guess it doesn't matter now."

Her fists clenched tight, she turned on him with a scowl. "Like hell it doesn't. They're going to kick you back out if you're not emotionally stable. I'm fucking stunned you managed to get in here in the first place."

"Like I said, rules were bent."

"They're not going to bend them forever. This ain't Atlas. Unless they have proof that you've managed to cope with this shit, then they're gonna—" She fell silent; none of her words seemed to move Opher's emotional needle an inch. "Hey! Listen to me!"

He dropped his head and gazed at her with lidded eyes. "I am listening to you."

"Then _say_ something!" she snapped at him, furious with his sudden apathy. Only then did she notice someone's head poked in around her front door. Opher followed her surprised gaze to find Schwarze's smiling face. "A-ah… damn you, do you ever fucking knock?" Indigo grumbled.

Schwarze sensed the tension and decided to play it a little more serious than she normally would. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had a guest." She pranced inside and closed the door. "Is anything amiss?"

Indigo seized up again; what she'd heard from Opher wasn't the type of chatter she just felt comfortable spitting out without his say so, even to her best friend in the entire Kingdom. "Uh, well, I mean…" His continued nonchalance didn't help her make a decision. "Gods help me, don't just sit there, you asshole!"

Opher watched Schwarze bounce around and sit on the other end of his sofa, all smiles and expectant eyes. "Aha, cutie, let me in on your secrets too!"

"Eh. We were talking about my girlfriend who died just after childbirth." The gamut through which their expressions ran was somehow hilarious to him; Schwarze was, of course, horrified to hear this, while Indigo seemed pissed off about how easy it was for him to say those words. "What? Like you weren't going to tell her anyway after I left. She may as well hear it straight from the source."

Indigo folded her arms and glared at him, a silent admission that he was absolutely right. "Are you even seeing a therapist?" she asked, hoping to change the subject a bit. "You better be."

"Nope." He placed his hands behind his head and let the surprised and unhappy outbursts of both women wash over him.

"You must!" Schwarze chided him. "For your safety and everyone else's!"

"Seriously!" Indigo added with a huff. "What is your deal, man? You can't suppress shit like this!"

"Well, do I look upset?" Neither had an immediate retort for him, so Opher pressed on. "Besides, why would I talk to a stranger when I could — and did — talk to one of you instead?" Now both of their faces were slightly red; the idea had been to throw them off, and it worked, at least for a moment.

"Ah, _mein freund_ , I appreciate the sentiment, but we're not exactly qualified to—" Waving from Indigo shut the willowy Atlesian up. "Hmm?"

"I've got other problems with it." She moved to whisper into Schwarze's ear, an act that caused Opher's brow to cock with surprise.

After a minute, Schwarze nodded and looked back toward him as the other woman withdrew to stand. "Oh, you have a point. Perhaps we could refer him to someone she knows?"

"Maybe. Ask her the next time you see her." Indigo regarded his quizzical look with hands on her hips. "What? We're helping you out."

"By doing…" he replied, hands rolling as he tried to coax some clarification out of his boss.

Schwarze chirped the truth before Indigo had a chance to intercept it. "By setting you up with a therapist!"

"Oh." Opher peered at each woman in turn before he realized the implication. "Wait. You see a therapist?"

"Well, yes." Schwarze nervously toyed with her black ponytail — an emotion Opher had never seen her wear before now — and tried to maintain her smile. He blinked when Indigo abruptly sat between them.

"Just because you don't look upset doesn't mean you're not," she said with a huff. "I'm worried about you getting kicked outta here. I'd rather you didn't." Silence followed; Indigo found herself sandwiched between his vaguely snarky smile and Schwarze's abrupt giggling fit. "What? If he gets kicked out, who am I gonna send out on deliveries?!" she snapped at her friend.

"Mhm," she replied sweetly. "I'm sure that's it."

"All right, all right, I'll play along with… whatever this is." Opher stood up and stretched obnoxiously. "Can I get an answer to my original question, though? What is 'moving day'?"

"What? Don't you kn—" She jumped when Indigo slapped an oily hand across her mouth. "Mmph!"

"Shush." Indigo only withdrew her hand when Schwarze poked it away. "Today is the day when the Kingdom rounds up its exiles. Nobody wants to be outside to watch it, so… I figured you wouldn't want to see it either. It's called moving day so it sounds innocuous when the little kids ask questions. We tell 'em the people are just moving away."

They watched Schwarze whine and fuss with the oil smears on her cheeks before he replied, "Right." Things here really were different than up north, though he kept this fact to himself for now. "I guess you have a point. Thanks for the heads up."

"Question!" Again, they looked to Schwarze. "Why _is_ cutie here, exactly?"

"'Cause he might be movin' in to one of the empty apartments." Indigo frowned at her hands. "Speaking of which, I guess I owe you a look around. Let me get washed up." She took her leave and disappeared down a short hallway.

When she noticed Opher staring curiously at the gun parts Indigo left behind on the coffee table, Schwarze couldn't help but explain. "Those are the internal bits of her rifle. She has to keep it ready in case she gets reactivated."

"Ohhhhh… huh." Based on their size, they must have belonged to a fairly substantial gun. Opher scratched under his hat idly. "What did she do in the Army, anyway? I only found out she was in the reserve a few days ago and she hasn't mentioned it since." Silence. He looked back at her and found a strange, wooden expression on her face, one that was completely incongruous with her half-smile. "What?"

"Oh," she said at last, "she'll tell you if she wants to. It's nothing terribly important."

"Fair enough." Opher was beyond curious, but he saw no point in pushing the issue and took Schwarze's words at face value for now.

* * *

Amber shielded her eyes from the glare of the afternoon sun as she and Olivine continued toward the old stone ruins. Their progress was slow — not due to any Grimm interference, as one woman or the other would just magically snap the beasts out of existence with bursts of wind or ice, but merely because they were using the chance to catch up with each other. Incessant birdsong forced her to raise her voice to continue the conversation. "I've never actually been to Anima. What's it like?"

"Wet. Windy. Green. Unless it's snowing. The weather is weird." Olivine side-eyed a charging Death Stalker, encased it in ice with a snap of her fingers, then walked deliberately over to shatter its frozen body with her great-sword. "Oh, and humid. You're not missing much."

"Still sounds better than home." Amber checked her Scroll — unlike the students, they owned versions hardened against magnetic interference and thus their devices functioned without issue. The very tips of her fingers tingled slightly. "Leyline feedback is bad today. Why do I feel it right now? We're not that close to the ruins."

"Look." Olivine pointed her sword through the trees at a pile of green rock that should not have existed. They walked over to examine the stones. Whereas it twisted the students' Auras like corkscrews, the mossy rock was almost completely unable to deform their steely essence. "Deifacted magnetite. Huh. Those little bastards actually managed to kill one of the Geists." The other haphazard formation of magnetite became apparent when she stepped away and looked around. "No, both of them. There's another pile."

The shorter woman's citrine eyes went to the path those giants had torn through the forest. "How did they die? I don't see any signs of a fight. The stones aren't even scratched up or cracked." Further examination proved her wrong, however; one stone in each pile bore a tremendous circular puncture and a spider-web of cracks around it. "Wait. Look at these."

"Huh?" Olivine trundled over to see for herself. "The hell made these holes?"

"No idea, but I don't see any other physical damage."

"I'm confused. If they were headed this way, then…" She planted a heavy black boot on one of the stones and stared into the forest. "Let's pick up their trail and go south. See what we can see."

"All right. I've got no other ideas." Amber fell in with her and they proceeded together. "When was the last time you saw Raven?"

"Huh?" Olivine's pearl eyes danced around in thought. "Not too long ago, actually. She came through Argus on her way back to the desert. We had a little chat. Why?"

Her diminutive sister became awfully fidgety. "I'm worried about Lapis."

This wasn't unusual — Olivine had concerns too, although she didn't make them apparent nearly so often as her little sister. She suspected another problem was the driving force. "Are you worried about Lapis, or about her replacement?"

Amber wrapped herself up in her deep green cloak despite the summer heat; that was all the answer Olivine really needed. Neither spoke again until after a pack of young Beowolves found themselves unlucky enough to be in front of the two women and were effortlessly destroyed. "I _really_ don't want to help train Cinder. I've already told Ozpin. She bothers me to no end."

"Oh." Olivine's great-sword dragged through the grass as she tried to think of some way to reassure her. "I don't know how we're going to be split up when she ascends. Raven would still be the second-weakest afterward… the old man might put Cinder here with me and send you home to Vacuo with Raven. What about that?"

"I—well, I guess I wouldn't mind. She's always nice to me. Her tribe seems to like me a lot." Amber released her cloak and twirled her crystal-tipped staff for a while. "She doesn't bother you? Cinder, I mean."

"No, because I can kick her ass. So can you."

"That's…" She pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "That's not the point, Olivine."

"It's the only point." Strings of uneasiness tugged at her own heart about another subject; before too long Amber noticed the unusual look on her face and stared up at her. "What?"

"Is something on _your_ mind?" she asked, almost amused to have the chance to offer advice for once.

"Aahhhh…" Olivine grumbled her way back into silence and stared forward. "It's—it's probably nothing, but do you know that guy Qrow Branwen's been watching in Vale?"

His face she remembered, sure, but the man's name completely evaded Amber. She tapped her chin with a finger. "Oh, yes. What about him?"

"Have you seen his picture?"

Confused, Amber came to a stop and leaned her staff against a tree in order to fiddle with her Scroll. She brought Opher's photo on screen. "Yes, I'm looking at it right now. Why?"

"Doesn't he look, I dunno, familiar?" Olivine trundled over to her to gaze at his face too. As before, her subconscious tied itself into increasingly more ornate knots with every second she lost to his blank face.

"Um, not really?" Amber squinted at the photo until she became aware of Olivine's distinct unease. "Huh? What's the matter?"

"I feel like I've seen this guy before, somewhere, I just can't put my damn finger on it." She walked away to wrack her brain for clues.

Concerned, Amber wandered over to stand at her left side. "Where? Out in the wilderness?"

Getting hold of the recollection was like trying to snatch sunlight out of the air. Olivine drove her mighty blade into the soil and rubbed at her eyes for a moment. "I dunno. I just know I've seen him somewhere before." She looked down as Amber poked her other arm.

"You should tell Ozpin, then," she said gravely.

"All I've got is a hunch, Amber. That ain't enough to bother him with, is it?"

She folded her arms and tried to look as stern as she could while standing next to her ridiculously tall sister. "It's possible this guy killed Tock when I couldn't. It can't hurt to be sure."

"I guess." Olivine collected herself and proceeded onward. "We can tell him when we get—" It struck her mind like the summer sun, invisible to sight, yet it outshone the actual star above them with ease as her brain processed and decoded the sensation. "—Amber. Holy magic."

"I know." She pointed her staff toward a nearby round clearing. "That way. Let's go." It was the same area where Ruby's and Pyrrha's teams had found themselves surrounded that morning. Both women prowled the treeline for a moment before they headed toward its center.

"I don't even need to ask where this came from. It feels just like Summer Rose," Olivine growled. Hatefulness darkened her face as her grip on her sword tightened to white-knuckle intensity — yet something else tickled her brain as she waited for Amber to join her at the center of the clearing. Words to describe this other stimulus completely evaded her. "Wait, that's not all. What's the other one?" This presence was a muted undertone to the fading, unseen glow that clung to the air, yet completely different from the silvery residue of holy magic. Amber was no more capable of identifying it than Olivine. Both women stepped away from it and back toward it several times. "It's the strongest right here. Dust discharge, maybe?"

"It does rather feel that way." Amber searched her mind for a benchmark and came up empty. "Let's find out." She plucked a green Dust crystal from a leather pouch on her belt and held it in her palm. Her Aura was so powerful that she didn't need to prime it consciously — the stone bloomed into a tornadic outburst of air that slashed into the afternoon sky, scattering birds from the trees around them. A fine gray powder remained in her palm afterward. It glittered in the sunlight as the wind blew it away. Both women soaked up the characteristics of its residue in silence. "This is Ash!" she blurted out, although something was still off. "Wait a minute… Ash so fine we can't see it? I don't understand."

"Uhhhh…" Olivine glanced back and lazily deleted a pack of Beowolves who were charging in to examine the Dust discharge with bolts of lightning that jumped from her fingers. "There's only one guy I know who can burn Dust anywhere near that kind of efficiency."

Amber already knew who she meant. She swallowed hard. "Ozpin, but he wasn't out here. And if it wasn't him, then who?"

Little metallic clacks rang out as Olivine tapped the screen of her Scroll with the fingertips of her armored glove. "I'm asking him for ideas right now." She turned her mind to the larger implications. "Anyone who can use Dust like this must know at least a little magic too. That shouldn't be possible outside of the Laochra Airgid."

"Unless there are other magicked spies we haven't been told about. Or... Maidens."

Olivine used her titanic sword as a cane to bear her weight and frowned. "You damn well know that's not the case. We have to know everything. The agreement calls for it."

"I know, but…" The full weight of the problem hit Amber flush and forced silence. She collapsed her staff and tucked it away into the custom holster strapped to her left side. "It's hard enough for us to keep up with the silver-eyed in the first place. If there are other bloodlines we don't even know about—" A headache rushed in as she lost control of her thoughts. "Ugh. This isn't good."

"Eh, the old man will know what to do." Olivine flicked a shard of ice back over her shoulder at a charging Ursa without even flashing it a glance; its dying roars also failed to earn her gaze. "Let's go hit the ruins and run back home before we both sweat ourselves to death." Before either of them could start off, however, her Scroll emitted a tone. "Check that," she said while reading the message, "he wants us back now."

"Why?" Amber idly deconstructed a few more encroaching Ursae with a flick of her wrist and the wind magic that came with it. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah." She showed her little sister the message and frowned again. "I think he's got the same questions we do and no answers for any of 'em."

* * *

Ozpin received the two women when they returned to Beacon's campus not in his main office in its Tower, but a separate one located in an administration building nearby. Both had exchanged their usual outfits for something more subdued and business-like in the form of skirt suits — dark blue for Olivine and forest green for Amber — though this attire looked rather out of place on the former's massive, muscular frame. Neither woman was visibly armed. They came to a halt before the dark wooden desk behind which the Headmaster sat.

"Lock the door," Ozpin instructed Amber quietly. Only after she obeyed did he speak again. "I want to know everything you know."

Olivine began the debriefing. "Ruby Rose has access to her magic. I don't know if she's conscious of it yet, but she damn sure used some out there."

"I see." Any emotion he felt remained hidden behind his stoic face. "Is that how they managed to kill the Geists?"

Amber shook her head. "Doesn't seem like it. We found two holes in the stones they left behind, but that's all. The forest around them was completely untouched. And, anyway, the residue wasn't close. It was a kilometer south. Maybe a bit more."

"Hmm. And the other residue you found?"

Tired of standing, Olivine tried to shove herself into one of the chairs at her side, though she gave up after a moment and moved toward the couch that stood against one wall as she spoke. "Ash, but it ain't like anything we've ever felt besides us and you. The efficiency level is insane. It was so fine we couldn't even _see_ it."

He leaned back in his chair and stared at them. "And the holy light was the only true magic you felt?"

"Yes," Amber replied. She managed to fit herself into a chair easily and sighed. "It was still fairly potent, too. Ruby Rose must have expelled quite a bit — she probably panicked."

"Forget her. She's the problem we know about," Olivine hissed. "What about this other person? Nobody can burn Dust that completely without knowing at least a _little_ of the true art, right?"

Ozpin cast his eyes at Olivine as she lounged on the sofa and nodded. "You're correct. I can only assume the source intervened to help Miss Rose and her team — now I'd like to know why."

"Hey, um, could this mean the silver-eyed have been hiding other magic users from us?" Both of them snapped their eyes to Amber; she shrank in her chair under their gaze and squeaked.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. We need to know more first." Ozpin rubbed at his chin for a while in thought. "I'm likely going to pull Qrow off of his current assignment and send him out on this instead. It takes priority."

"Eh? What's he up to?"

He looked to Olivine again. "Contingent on his report tonight, I'm going to cease surveillance of that Riese fellow and—" The awkwardness almost visibly drained from Amber and flew right over to her larger sister; Ozpin blinked and fell silent. "I feel as though I've missed something."

"Tell him!" Amber whispered harshly.

"Yes. Do tell." He regarded her quietly until she finally managed to groan herself into sitting up straight. "Hmm? I'm all ears."

She hunched over and stared at her feet. "Riese. I've seen him somewhere before, I just can't figure out where or when."

Ozpin didn't scold her for withholding this fact until now; all he wanted was as much information as he could get to make decisions. "Qualify this notion, Lady Duprix. Have you seen someone who looks like him, or have you seen _his face_?"

Olivine replied without hesitation. "His face. I feel it in my bones. When I look at it I feel weird and I don't understand why."

He granted her statement as much weight as he could, but in the absence of anything further, Ozpin decided their other problem was more important. "In light of the fact that he has been a model citizen since his arrival, I'm afraid our new problem must take precedence. Perhaps I'll find some other way to keep an eye on him in the meanwhile."

She nodded at this assessment and frowned. "Yeah. We gotta figure out who helped the little rosebud and why."

"If that's what happened. I guess the only way to find out is to debrief them and see if they lie about anything." Amber hopped out of her chair and stretched. "I think that's it? I hope that's it. I hate wearing these suits."

The Headmaster allowed himself a light chuckle. "Glynda has been rather emotional all day. She thinks their deployment in sector four was an accident and the upperclassmen have been pressuring her for answers about how they managed to kill the Geists. We'll likely know more about the situation soon. Oh, and before you leave..." He hesitated until they stopped near the door and looked his way. "...do be careful about the contents of your Scroll communications for the time being. The CCT personnel tell me they've picked up odd signal interference and they cannot seem to pin down the source."

"You think someone is listening in?" Amber asked.

"I can't completely deny the possibility. Best to be careful for now." With that, Ozpin motioned toward the door. "That's all. Change into something a bit less stuffy and enjoy your day." He watched them leave with a smile that lasted only until the door was closed behind them.

* * *

It was clear the campus' dorm rooms were meant for four, not eight. Or seven as the case may be — Weiss wasn't present for this impromptu meeting of Ruby's and Pyrrha's teams, since she was still in the infirmary for treatment on her injured shoulder. As this room belonged to the redhead and her crew, Ruby and Blake took seats at their desks. Yang chose to stand. Everyone else had their own bed to sit on. Opher had managed both to out run them in the field and to vacate the campus long before their return, leaving them without any answers. They now sought a course forward among themselves despite the exhaustion that marked all of their faces.

"I know it was Dust, I just don't know _how_ he used it," Yang said from her position leaned against the closed door. "I've never seen anyone fight like that before."

"Maybe he's a Huntsman?" Nora shrugged when everyone looked her way. "I mean, I've never seen one fight before besides our teachers. Have you guys?"

"We've seen dad fight, but he's just faster Yang with a goatee that never really happened and somehow even worse jokes." Ruby smirked as her sister crossed her arms. "He's a teacher at Signal. So is our Uncle Qrow, we've seen him fight a couple of times."

Now it was the blonde who wore a smirk. "And he's just a less geeky Ruby with stubble."

"Okay, I walked into that."

Pyrrha cracked a little grin at their banter, but she quickly moved them back to the subject. "Do they use Dust like he did?"

Ruby shook her head a few times. "No, not really. Dad and Uncle Qrow can get more out of a Dust crystal than we can, but they use them just like we do."

"How can they get more out of a crystal?" Jaune asked. "I thought a crystal has whatever it has in it and that's it."

"Yes, but training and experience allows you to use that stored power more efficiently," Pyrrha explained. "They can't do what Opher did?"

"Nope. That was just straight-up ridiculous." Ruby searched their faces for a moment. "So… are we gonna hold up our end of the deal?"

Blake maintained the position she had held since their encounter with Opher ended. "We really, really shouldn't lie about this."

"Wait a second. I've got a different question." Yang waited for their attention before she asked it. "He said he didn't do anything we couldn't do. Can _we_ fight like that? 'Cause I wanna fight like that. It would make this a hell of a lot easier."

"Maybe Pyrrha could ask him to show us a few things?" Nora blinked when the redhead jumped with surprise and looked at her. "What? You're the one that's already on a first-name basis with him."

She anxiously played with her long ponytail. "I'm just good at remembering names, really."

Ruby slumped back in her chair, rubbing at her eyes to dismiss the lingering ache within. "It doesn't hurt that it sounds like the word gopher." A tiny snicker escaped her lips.

"Can we get back to the problem?" a stern Blake interjected. "What are we going to tell the teachers?"

"Wellllll, if we tell them the truth, what do we say? And what if we get him in trouble for no reason? Exiled, even? He helped us." Nora swung her legs, her face a lighthouse of resolution in a room filled with awkward uncertainty. "We all came back this time. I guess we can't prove that he helped everybody else too, but it sure _looks_ like he did."

"Yes…" Pyrrha plopped her elbows onto her knees and slumped over in thought. "If we knew why he wanted to keep a low profile, it'd be a little easier to make this decision."

Ruby straightened up and revealed her face as inspiration struck. "Hold on, I've got it. We'll leave him out of our story for now, then we can buy more stuff from his shop. That way we can talk to him the next time he makes a delivery and see what's going on." She anticipated the lukewarm expression on Blake's face and added, "You don't have to come with us for the debriefing. If no one asks you anything, then you won't need to lie."

The Faunus' brow creased with reluctance. "As long as we're making some effort to figure things out, then… all right. I still don't like it, but all right."

"Cool. I guess the six of us need to get our story straight, then." Yang glanced over at Ren and corrected herself. "Five of us. You never talk."

"Sure he does! To me. Like, at least once a day. Sometimes."

Ruby cackled at Nora for a second before she stood up and tried to stretch some feeling back into her limbs. "It is six. Don't forget Weiss. I should probably go see how she's doing."

"Maybe you should stay with her and get checked out yourself. I'm surprised you can even talk after the noise we heard you make."

She deflected Yang's concern with a tiny huff. "I'm good, thanks." But now she found herself thinking about the flash of light that came before Opher's display. "That light… what do you think it was? It had to be him, right?"

"Well, you screamed really weird and then _fwoosh_! So, what did you do?" Nora's tone and face indicated this was a joke, even if none of them had any better ideas for the cause of the flash besides Opher.

"I didn't do anything!" Ruby countered, flailing her arms briefly. "I just freaked out. A lot. Harder than I've ever freaked out before." She froze when Yang walked over and stared into her eyes at close range. "Um. Personal space."

"Look at your eyes, sis." She produced a black compact and showed Ruby her own face in the mirror. At some point, at least one blood vessel in both eyes had burst.

"When did—" Ruby took the compact and examined her silver orbs more closely. "Gross. Okay, fine, you win. I'll go get 'em looked at and tell Weiss about our plan."

"Thank you." She ruffled her sister's hair as she left, causing Ruby to whine and flail at her one more time.

After she departed, Ren leaned down to Nora and whispered something none of them could hear. She quickly relayed his words. "Oh! Ren says he wasn't able to call anybody before I made him come back."

"Huh. That makes things a little easier. Nobody really knows what happened but us." Yang played with her locks thoughtfully. "Let's crash for a while and think of something later. We've got time."

Pyrrha politely stifled a yawn and nodded. "Good idea. We don't need to overthink this. We just all need the same story."

Something else clearly bothered the redhead, however, and after a moment Nora called her out on it. "What else are you thinking about? I know that face."

"Ah, well…" She rose from her bed and walked to the window. "I don't quite understand. Like Blake said, if I had that kind of power, I'd make sure everyone knew it. And then… I'd go help _everyone_. He didn't seem, I don't know, interested?"

"Maybe he's just not as nice as you are?" Jaune offered.

She placed a hand on her face to obscure the abrupt blush that seized her cheeks. "Well, he was nice enough to save us."

"Maybe he had a point about people freaking out," Yang interjected. "Look at us. We're still a little antsy. There's not much point in being that strong if all you do is attract even more Grimm."

"Yes, maybe you're right." Once again, however, Pyrrha wore a thoughtful mask as she stared out the window. Opher's disinterest bothered her the more she thought on it until the uncertainty coagulated into an uncomfortable question: if, as she now suspected, he'd been following them all morning, why didn't he make it known before they faced certain death? Like so many of her thoughts, she swallowed this one and turned to her friends with a smile. "I'm sure he has a good reason. Now then, shall we all get some rest? Passing out seems like a lovely option at the moment, and I'd rather not do it while standing up."

* * *

Even though she was sound asleep, a little part of Weiss knew someone else was here. It morphed from the barest inkling of a presence and into the registered sound of snoring that finally dragged her into consciousness. She rolled over in her bed and found Ruby in another one to her left. Her red and black boots were neatly lined up on the floor.

"What is…" she grumbled while sitting up. Another moment or two went by before she acknowledged the continued pain in her right shoulder and her presence in the infirmary in turn. Ruby's snoozing grated on her nerves within seconds. She looked fruitlessly for something to throw at her leader to make it stop, then settled for her voice instead. "Ruby!" she snapped.

"Hnnn!" The girl flailed awake and looked at Weiss in one startled motion. Their eyes locked together. "Hey! You're awake!"

"Unfortunately." Weiss noticed the rather gruesome state of Ruby's silver eyes and blinked with concern. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, this? Ahhhh, it's nothin'. I just got so stressed out that I popped a blood vessel. Or two." Ruby urged herself to the edge of the bed to sit as she fussed with her hair. "I can still see fine, so it's no big deal. The nurse said it should go away in a day or so. What about you? How's your arm?"

Weiss cautiously tested her right arm's range of motion, wincing several times in the process. "It could be better." Her gaze went to the nearest window. "What time is it?"

"I dunno." Both girls searched for their Scrolls, a race Ruby won. "Just after four."

"I slept too long." Weiss rubbed firmly at her eyes for a while. "What are we going to do about the… problem?"

Ruby checked their surroundings before she replied, "We're gonna leave him out of our story, buy stuff from his shop, then figure out what his deal is when he comes back to deliver it. That's the best we could think of. Blake really doesn't want to lie, so she's not gonna come with us to the debrief." She regarded Weiss with a tilted head. "I can't really ask you to come either, you don't look so good."

Weiss refused to show weakness, even to one of the few people who had already seen it firsthand. "I'm perfectly fine. We need to get our story straight, don't we?" At last, she found her Scroll and regretted it almost instantly when she discovered a missed call from her father. "Hnnrgh."

"Huh?" Ruby had seen this expression before, but she still didn't understand its source. "What's up?"

"Father. I'll have to call him back later." Silence from Ruby made her blink. "What?"

"You… wanna talk about it?"

Her icy eyes became slits. "No."

Ruby drew back into a somewhat defensive position and added, "It's n-not really a good idea to bottle this stuff up, Weiss—"

" _No_."

"Okay, fine." Her eyes rolled about in thought. "I'm not sure how we're going to, um, not tell them what actually happened. Any ideas?"

"A few." Weiss already considered herself an expert on fudging the truth despite only sixteen years of experience. She continued to move her injured shoulder around, determined to work out the pain before anyone else saw it. "I think our best bet is to have you coordinate with Pyrrha. You're the team leaders. You're our voices. Anything that anyone else says should only be to confirm whatever comes out of your mouth and hers. The less people that talk, the better."

Her leader was duly impressed. "Ooooooo, that sounds really smart. You're smart."

"I'm well aware, thank you," she remarked, finally able to get her right arm over her head after considerable discomfort. "We need something simple and easy to remember—" A chime from Ruby's Scroll cut her off, but it was the panic on the girl's face after she picked it up and looked at the screen which kept her silent for a moment. "What? What's the matter?"

"Yang says Miss Goodwitch wants to talk to all of us right now! Our team and Pyrrha's too!" Ruby snapped with terror. "I don't even know what story they came up with! I don't know anything! I left them to come down here and check on you!"

"Calm down." Weiss sucked in a sharp breath as she dropped her arm again and tried to ignore the ache that caused. "Agh! Ugh. Well. This isn't ideal."

"No, really?" Ruby frantically texted Pyrrha. "I can't just come up with a good story so fast! What if it doesn't match anyone else's?"

Weiss gazed at her evenly. "We could just tell the truth."

Her fingers went still. "I… I mean…" They locked eyes again. "Nora had a point — what if we get him in trouble? He wasn't supposed to be out there, but he was, and he helped us. Is that how we're gonna repay him for saving our lives? I know it's not right to lie… but..."

Such unease didn't sit right on Ruby's face, although Weiss found herself hard-pressed to explain why it bothered her. She assumed a proper position with her hands clasped in her lap. "I won't lie; this is something of a gamble. That said… he wouldn't have helped us in the first place if he were planning something untoward—"

Ruby subtly raised her hand to interrupt. "I dunno what that word means."

"Of course you don't." She allowed herself a sigh. "It means inappropriate. As I was saying, while I can't figure out why he doesn't want attention — or why he even helped us at all — you're right. He _did_ help us." A wry smirk appeared. "Besides, it wouldn't be the first thing I've hid from someone."

Ruby brightened up until she processed Weiss' last statement, after which she frowned again. "Wait, what else are you hiding—"

"Focus!"

"Ahh! Okay!" She quickly shoved her feet into her boots. "I wish Pyrrha would answer me." Movement near the room's only entrance caught her eye — then shoved her heart into her throat. The redhead had arrived and she wasn't alone; Glynda stood close behind her in the doorway. "Oop. Uh… hey, Pyrrha! Hi, Miss Goodwitch!"

"Goodness, that was fast," Weiss mumbled as she looked back toward them.

"Hello again!" the redhead said with a wave. "Miss Goodwitch wants to debrief us right away." A wooden laugh followed. "Which is fine with me, I plan to sleep all day tomorrow."

"Uh huh, yep, that's cool." Ruby skittered over to them, brushing off her dress and patting down her hair as best she could on the way. "Um, ma'am? Do you want Weiss to come too?"

Glynda shook her head. "No, no, that's not necessary. I only want you two and one more member from each team, which I already have."

Ruby swayed back and forth on her heels, barely able to restrain her anxiety. "Right. What's the rush, though? If I can ask."

" _May_ ask," Weiss corrected her from across the room.

"I'll explain in a moment, but suffice it to say I have been under some external pressure since you returned to get answers." Glynda adjusted her glasses and turned away. "I won't keep you long. Shall we?"

"Yes! We shall definitely… uh, shall." Ruby couldn't leave without saying goodbye to Weiss. "Bye! We'll be back later!" All she got in response was a mumbled reply and a dismissive flick of the pale girl's good hand.

Ruby only learned who else had volunteered for the proceedings after they got outside. Yang and Nora were waiting for them at the top of the wide, squat stairs that led up to the infirmary entrance. They weren't alone, however; scattered in a loose circle around the base of those stairs were several upperclassmen, many in their senior uniforms, and all of them gazing expectantly at the four girls in silence. Their awestruck expressions rendered her stationary for a moment.

"Yeah, I know," Yang mumbled to her sister. "They followed us from the dorms. I don't get it either."

"Students, please," Glynda called to the crowd. "I understand your desire to know more — frankly, I share it — but give them some space." She took point while the four of them walked, or skipped, in Nora's case, along behind her. Not only did the gathering fail to disperse, but it fell in with them — albeit at a respectable distance — and pursued on shuffled strides. "Well. I don't know what I expected. I suppose I can't blame them."

"So, uh, what's goin' on back here?" Nora asked as she threw a glance at the procession. Her eyes landed on Coco for a second before she turned away.

There was a visible smile on Glynda's face for the first time any of them could recall. "We've been trying for years to kill those two Geists. They've claimed several Hunters — and many of our students. Whole teams were lost. I thought we'd eventually need the Army to do it, but you… you finally stopped them." Her grin vanished in an instant. "There are so many people I wish had lived to see this day."

"O-oh." Pyrrha swallowed hard. All four of their faces drew tight to some degree.

The solemn parade reached Beacon Tower after a few minutes. While Glynda led the four girls inside, the rest of the students set up a perimeter at the base of the stairs and watched them enter. All were silent. No one spoke until they reached her office, where she apologized for the lack of seating. "I apologize for only having two chairs. We don't usually do the debriefing process in here." One of them was already occupied. "Ah… Professor Ozpin?"

He looked back with a smile as they approached her desk. "There's quite a fuss about the—" The presence of Pyrrha and Nora confused him into silence. "Eight of you, apparently." The Headmaster relinquished his chair for whoever wanted it when they arrived, noting the crimson in Ruby's eyes. His smile never wavered. "I take it your teams merged again?"

"Yes, sir," Pyrrha replied politely. The four girls muttered amongst themselves to determine who would get to sit down — she and Ruby were picked, and so they sat. "Where shall we begin?"

Glynda alighted in her own chair and looked to the Headmaster for an indication about which one of them would take charge of the briefing. He deferred to her with a nod and walked a few steps away to give everyone some room. "Before we start, actually, I'd like to issue a formal apology to you and your team, Miss Rose. You weren't meant to end up where you did. I've already reprimanded the pilot."

She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "Ah, it's fine. We all made it. No harm done."

"Still, mistakes like that add unnecessary danger to an already dangerous situation." She adjusted her glasses and turned on her projection screen. Her next words were to Ozpin. "Just a little bit of business before we proceed, since all of the relevant parties are here. Miss Rose and Miss Nikos went well over their monthly provisions budget. I figured I'd let you know now before you see it in the report."

"Oh, that… oops," Ruby squeaked.

Ozpin raised a brow. "By how much were they over?"

"By…" Glynda squinted at the screen. "A _lot_. They purchased a rather large quality of military-grade ammunition from a shop in Vale."

Again, the Headmaster raised a brow. "And how, pray tell, did they manage to do that?"

"The shop is owned by a Valesian Army reservist. She has the licensing necessary to sell such items." Glynda then muttered lowly to herself, "Perhaps I should have sent the entire freshman class there to buy supplies, it might have saved some lives—"

Ozpin detected her words anyway and, keen to avoid any uncomfortable exchanges with students present, decided to throw everyone a bone. "So long as you all were satisfied with your purchases, I'm inclined to turn the other cheek."

"Oh, yes, we were all quite pleased," Pyrrha assured him nervously. "The courier was even nice enough to come drop off our order before the trial last night."

"I'm glad to hear it." Why the redhead was so antsy, he didn't know, but Ozpin shrugged it off for now. "Enough housekeeping. Let's hear how you conquered the Emerald Forest, hmm?"

All he got was awkward silence in return. Glynda blinked at the display. "Whoever wants to go first is fine," she urged gently.

It was Ruby that chose to try and stall them with everything that happened _before_ they saw the Geists. "Right! So we ended up pretty close to the ravine and we're like, ugh, can't go that way. So Blake climbed a tree and looked around 'cause I didn't want anyone to use Dust since we don't actually _have_ to fight the Grimm this time, right?" She sucked in a breath. "And we found out about the ruins. I'm thinking, hey, we could set up a defensive position there. Maybe."

"Except whatever they were made of messed with our Auras," Yang cut in. "And with our Scrolls, too. What was that stuff?"

Ozpin explained after a sip of coffee from his mug. "Ah, the magnetite. We don't fully understand its effects on Aura, but since the fields are electromagnetic, it tends to distort them in various ways. That distortion can attract Grimm. The magnetic circuitry in Scrolls seems to suffer as well."

All four girls were too nervous or distracted to ask why teams had ended up there previously if that was the case. Ruby pressed on. "Oh. Well, uh, anyway, we went to the ruins and it was gross. We all kinda panicked a little bit when the big guys showed up. One of 'em saw Weiss and then _all of the Grimm_ picked up on it. So we ran to the south." Here she paused to cross her arms. "Blake and Weiss split up from us, which I didn't like, but I guess it turned out okay. Actually… if they hadn't fought the way they did, we might have gotten overrun." A look up at an awkward Yang confirmed her suspicions.

"Yeah," the blonde admitted. "Seemed like a bad idea in the moment, turned out to be a good idea instead."

"Yeah. Anyway, Weiss called Pyrrha for help and then they showed up and she had some _super-fancy_ tactics." She nudged the redhead with her elbow. "Tell them about your fancy tactics."

A nervous Pyrrha blinked at her. "Ah, well?" Instead, she ran all the way back to the beginning of her own team's experience to continue stalling for time. "Nothing of note really happened to us for a while after we landed, but…"

"Oh, except I got into a slap-fight with a little baby Ursa!" Nora blurted out happily. She pointed at the healing gash on her left forearm. "I won, obviously. With my big hammer."

"Yes, you did," Pyrrha said after a chuckle. "At any rate, yes, Weiss called for help and so we moved north to assist. Once we were together, I suggested that we form distinct battle lines so that Ren could escape and call for help — something he wasn't able to do in the first trial. So we did, and it kind of worked, for a while." This was about the point where she lost her polite smile. "They still pushed us back. The Geists never stopped pursuing us, either."

"And we ended up getting a _little bit_ surrounded," Nora added a few seconds later. "Then…"

They were out of time. The four girls looked at each other helplessly until Ruby suddenly cleared her throat and stood up. "I'm gonna level with you, Miss Goodwitch, something happened that we can't explain. There was this flash of white light! Super bright. By the time we could see again, well… all the Grimm were dead. Like, poof."

"Poof?" a disbelieving Glynda repeated.

"Poof!" Ruby emphasized with a wild hand motion. "I know. We don't understand it either."

"Poof," the tall blonde said again, this time to Ozpin.

Ozpin saw his chance to subtly test that story. "Is this flash what killed the Geists?" he asked.

Ruby couldn't have been more evasive if she'd been Semblance-dashing around the room. "I guess? I really don't know what to think at this point." Concerted nodding from Yang and Pyrrha backed her up, while Nora just shrugged helplessly with a smile. "That's really all we've got. Ren couldn't call anyone, so he came back and then we just killed the rest of the time waiting for our ride. The Grimm kinda left us alone after whatever happened, uh, happened."

The redhead decided to sell their confusion a bit more. "Should we be concerned about this? I know whatever it was seemed to help us, but I certainly would like some answers."

Yang placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "Yeah, 'cause we ain't got any."

"I'm genuinely not sure what to tell you." Glynda looked over and saw Ozpin feigning an equal amount of confusion. "Well. I don't know what I expected to hear, but what you've told me certainly wasn't it." She looked into Ruby's eyes and frowned. "I think I've detained you long enough. Professor Ozpin and I will look into this and let you know if we find out anything more. Dismissed."

They departed with various goodbyes — Ruby waved, as did Nora with both hands, while Pyrrha dipped her head politely and Yang flicked them a half-hearted salute — and left the two administrators alone. "Outside interference?" Ozpin asked after a moment. Of course, he already knew much more than Glynda, but he had to keep up appearances.

"I would say so." Her eyes focused on the middle distance in search of answers. "What on Remnant emits a flash of light and can kill Grimm of that size instantaneously? An undiscovered variety of Dust? A secret Army weapons test?"

"The Schnee family would be trying to sell us the former and I would have heard about the latter before now." Ozpin took another measured sip out of his mug. "Very curious indeed. It might be worth sending someone out to investigate."

"Definitely." Silence returned as Glynda kept on thinking. "Those girls were awfully nervous; then again, I suppose I would be too if something happened that I didn't understand."

"I agree." Ozpin walked over and peered at her screen, where he finally got an exact number for how much Pyrrha and Ruby had spent. "That's quite a bit of Lien."

"Admittedly, but it does include the rush processing fee. And Miss Nikos was right; they actually delivered it after midnight today. I suspect that inflated the price a bit as well."

"I appreciate the courier's dedication." The Headmaster had now checked out of the conversation and proceeded toward the elevator.

"Mhm. Nice enough man, I suppose. I believe his name was Opher." Glynda was so busy with paperwork now that she didn't notice the abrupt change in Ozpin's demeanor. "He was so tired that I let him stay overnight on campus. I figured it was the least I could do in return."

"I see. I do hope our guest wasn't bored to tears," he quipped on his way to the elevator to leave. "As for this flash of light... I have no answers."

"Likewise. I'll head out there later and investigate. Perhaps bring a few volunteers along." A stroke of inspiration hit her. "Wait a moment. Jaune Arc doesn't have an unlocked Semblance. What if it was him?"

Ozpin found it incredibly difficult to maintain interest in this little chat when he already knew so much. "Then it would have happened in the first trial as well. Stress-released Semblances usually present their effects the first time their users experience existential panic."

"You do have a point." The look on her face said everything Ozpin needed to know; Glynda had a question to answer and now there was no stopping her. "His family's Semblance history might be worth a look regardless. I'll report back with whatever I find."

"Very well. Until then." Ozpin stepped into the car and tapped the button to head to his own office. The moment he arrived, he whipped out his Scroll and placed it on the desk. The first order of business was to check the entry and exit logs; sure enough, Opher's chip had been scanned on arrival at around half-past midnight, which matched Glynda's statement. However, there wasn't just one more scan of his chip, but three, another exit at the north gate just as the airships left for the trial, then a return through the same gate not long before the students returned. Finally, there was the expected departure scan by the airship pads as he left on the shuttle to go home. "What in the world am I looking at?" the old professor muttered.

Ever cautious, Ozpin wanted more confirmation, preferably of the visual variety. Since the campus lacked internal security cameras, he'd need witnesses to know if anything unusual had gone on. After a look at last night's patrol logs, two possibilities sprang to mind instantly; both Coco and Velvet received a message to come see him in his office at their earliest convenience.


	8. Wild Card

Velvet only received Ozpin's message when she woke up that night; once she saw it on her Scroll, however, she was reduced to a curled-up position on her bed, shaking furiously. A sleepy Coco, on her knees on the floor, was in the midst of trying to talk her down from her panic. "Deep breaths," she said gently. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"He never wants to see us directly!" Velvet hissed back. "We always answer to Glynda! What could he possibly want? Is it because I keep talking to Blake?"

"I dunno, but if you don't calm down, you're gonna make things harder for the perimeter patrol." Here she stifled a yawn. "I already told him we're coming in together." With one eye, she peered at her friend. "And we should probably do it before we report. We ain't got much time."

"I d-d-don't wanna go…"

"You really think blowing him off is a good idea?" Coco struggled to her feet and sighed. "Velvet, please. The sooner we get this over with, the better. If we're _actually_ in trouble — and we aren't — then not showing up is gonna make it worse."

This was a point around which the Faunus could find no way — despite that, she knew only one thing would make her calm enough to overcome her rigid terror. She pointed toward the bathroom. "Bring me my medication."

"Yeah. Hold on." Coco disappeared from her sight for a few moments. When she returned, a small translucent bottle was in her hand. From this, she dispensed a single, tiny white pill into Velvet's trembling palm. She dropped back to her knees on the floor by Velvet's bed. "Fifteen minutes, right? Should be plenty of time."

"I sure hope so." Velvet swallowed it awkwardly and started a mental countdown. In the meanwhile, she fought viciously to regulate her out-of-control breathing. "Sh-should I wear something fancy? I don't think my jumpsuit is, w-well, appropriate."

Coco's reply bore the measured tone of experience. "Whatever makes you feel better." She now engaged in idle chatter to help her friend mentally latch onto something else besides her current panic. "I might volunteer for the freshies' next field trip. See if I can tag along with Ruby Rose."

Velvet regarded her with as much suspicion as her agitated mind could produce. "Why? So you can stand around and watch Weiss Schnee get beaten up? I heard she ended up in the infirmary."

The amount of desire she had to experience that scenario existed at a level above zero, so Coco allowed herself a tiny smirk. "I would be lying if I said no, but that ain't the main reason. I wanna see 'em fight. I wanna know how they did it." Her face softened with regret. "How they succeeded when I couldn't."

"Coco…" This look was enough to get Velvet upright, at least, although steady breaths remained beyond her.

"Forget it. Anyway, I'd like to keep an eye on Blake, too. You two seem to get along. You deserve more friends than just me."

She covered her face with her floppy bunny ears and groaned awkwardly — a sign her terror had begun to abate. "Coco, seriously… unh, it really is too bad about Blake and the watch list."

"Not much we can do about it." Enough time had passed for Coco to stand up and begin the next phase of the process she used to pull Velvet out of her panic episodes. "All right. Come on. Get to the edge of the bed."

"Yeah." It took a moment, but she yanked herself to the edge and sat in preparation to rise. Another moment later and she did, though immediately afterwards she doubled over to try and find her breath. "Closet. Get to closet." Along she shuffled as if a thousand tons rested upon her thin shoulders; reaching her closet took two or three minutes. Getting the door open took another. At this point, her medication began to take effect. "Ahhhhhh… that's slightly better."

Relieved, Coco rubbed at her eyes and moved to the bathroom to freshen up herself. A still-antsy Velvet joined her in short order, and together they tore through their nightly routine at ten times the speed. The Faunus chose a simple, sleeveless, knee-length blue dress together with the only pair of heels she actually owned, which were a pleasant gray color. Coco's outfit was her usual ensemble.

"This is as ready as I'm gonna get," Velvet admitted at length. Her hands continued to shake despite the medicine. "Let's just go now."

"I hope we aren't too late as it is."

Only one way to find out. Coco led her out of their dorm room, then down the stairs, and outside into Beacon's dark, slumbering campus. The tower loomed over them. Sure enough, the very top windows were still illuminated; although they couldn't see him from down here, it seemed likely the Headmaster was still waiting for them. They made for the tower in uneasy silence. The elevator car didn't budge when Coco tapped the button for the topmost floor — a crackle came from the speaker above the keypad instead.

"And who might be visiting me at this hour?" Ozpin asked through the intercom.

They shared a nervous glance before Coco answered. "Sir. It's Coco and Velvet. Sorry about the wait. I wanted us to come together and she's been asleep all day."

"Ah, that's quite all right. Come on up." The connection closed and the car started on its way.

"Well, he didn't _sound_ mad," Velvet admitted.

"See? I told you." Nervousness still plagued their steps as they emerged into his grand office. The Headmaster was, as usual, busy with something on his projection screen as they walked over.

"Just a moment. I won't keep you long. You don't even need to sit." He wrapped up whatever occupied him on his computer and turned his attention toward them. The looks on their faces weren't unexpected. "My apologies for being vague. Neither of you are in any sort of trouble."

Both girls deflated in their shoes. "Can't imagine what this is about, then," Coco admitted a second later.

"It's about a guest we had last night." Ozpin clasped his hands on the desktop and got to the point. "A courier stayed here after a late delivery. Did either of you see him?" To assist their recollection, he brought up a picture of the man himself on the projection screen. Both girls nodded when they saw it. "You _both_ did?"

Velvet struggled to find her voice at first, but finally stated, "I, um, I did, yes. In dormitory eight. He was looking for somewhere to sleep."

"I see. And when was this?"

She needed a minute to calculate. "Um… after two? Between two and two thirty. He scared the crap out of me because I had no idea who he was."

"Hmm." Ozpin's gaze went to Coco. "And you?"

She assumed the posture of a soldier at parade rest and recounted the details. "I saw him twice, both times at the north gate. The first was not long before Velvet saw him, then the second time must have been… ah, after sunrise. Right as the freshmen were leaving for the trial, actually. I talked to him then. Said he was waiting for an airship — and acted like a jerk in the process. I don't know what the hell he was doing over there when it was dark."

It was at this moment when Ozpin fully decided that Opher Riese and the mysterious events of the day's combat trial weren't two different problems, but parts of the same issue. He masked his curiosity with a nod. "I see. And those were the only times you saw him?" Again, they nodded. "Hmm."

"Something going on we should know about, chief?" Coco asked at length.

"Nothing you need to concern yourselves with, although I would appreciate it if you kept it to yourselves for now." Velvet's continued agitation caught his eye again. "We've not talked in a little while, have we? Any progress with your Semblance?"

"Ahh…" She drew her Scroll from a hip pocket and stared at it. In the palm of her other hand, a glowing blue construction took shape, whirling together until it resembled the device. With a flick of her wrists, she snapped open both simultaneously to show how much they were alike. The false Scroll had a screen, but nothing displayed on it. The real one had her flowery lock screen image. "I pr-practice when I can."

"You're getting rather good at it." Ozpin nodded his approval. "I'll trouble you both no further — and if I've made either of you late for your duties, just tell Glynda to come yell at me. She seems to like doing that anyway."

Coco allowed herself a little cackle as she guided Velvet back toward the elevator. "I'll take you up on that. I'd love to see it in person."

A minute later, they were gone. " _Why_?" was the one word that came from Ozpin's lips. "Why go out there to help _them_?" He brought Opher's passport file up on his projection screen and stared at it in silence. If he was hiding something, then his rigid and rather dull daily existence as detailed by Qrow would make sense. If he knew the true art, then his victory against Tock was assured from the start — if she didn't _know_ he was capable of such power, then she was a dead woman walking from the second she chose to challenge him. His brow furrowed. If, if, if; a whole bushel full of uncertainties and no answers. Even worse, his professed employer in Atlas was the Schnee Dust Company, whose database was among the few beyond his prying eyes. An idea struck him when he thought about the job title. "I'd be looking in the wrong place," he breathed.

If Opher actually was part of the crews the company used to find Dust, it would be best to ask someone who knew the harsh northern continent beyond Atlas' borders. Someone who'd just been there recently. And, unfortunately, someone who tended to keep her merry band of refuse out of CCT range. He had to try, however. To Qrow, Ozpin sent an innocuous-sounding message. _Still having trouble with the red gate?_

About four minutes went by before he got his answer. _Hinges are rusty. Can't get the damn thing open._

Translation: Qrow wasn't able to get in touch with his sister. "Damn," he muttered.

What other options were available? In theory, he could send Olivine or Amber into the city to get close to Opher. In practice, this was harder than it sounded — neither woman had the full credentials needed to come and go from Vale without catching someone's eye, whereas they could enter and leave Beacon as they pleased since nobody in the government really cared about the students. And while he could get them the appropriate documentation, eventually, another problem existed: if this man knew the true art, it was likely he could detect it too. Qrow might already be compromised — and if that was the case, he'd see Maidens coming from a continent away. No, he'd need to keep the parties away from each other for now. His network of less-than-Maidens would have equal problems entering the city too; there were even limits on people he could pull from other Kingdoms without attracting suspicion, and he didn't feel like he could spare the time to have them re-deployed from other continents if Riese was somehow attached to the Roses. With electronic and human intelligence out of his reach, at least with his current complement of personnel, he had only one choice left. Ozpin would have to dispatch a Maiden to Vacuo, one way or another, but he much preferred the Branwen way over an airship.

To this end, he sent back a reply. _You've put it off long enough. Better get it fixed as soon as you can._ With that, Ozpin set his Scroll aside and shot one more look at Opher's stony face before preparing to leave his office for the night.

* * *

Miles and miles to the west, south of the sea that divided Sanus from the empty continent to its north, lay the darkened desert which Ozpin's one potential lead about this problem called home. In the absolute dead of night, when the heat of the day was at its nadir and the winds blew enough to bring chills, a figure clad in a long, flowing, hooded light-colored cloak tread glacially through the sand. They'd stop once in a while to peer through a set of binoculars — not at Vacuo, the stubborn industrial boil stuck to the face of the empty desert whose belched pollution dragged a murky wound through the otherwise crystal clear, moonlit sky, but at a patch of empty sand some distance to its south and east. This area was absolutely uninhabited, as it represented some of the harshest land on the planet. No one could be seen. The figure made a few adjustments to their binoculars to be sure as another clad in the same way came over a dune to the rear and joined them.

"Psst," whispered the second, so as not to startle the first and attract any Grimm. "We should probably be getting back." A male voice.

The first answered; a female voice, rather low and containing no small amount of disdain. "Mercury! You scared the hell out of me. Walk louder."

"That's probably the first time you've ever told me to be loud instead of to shut up. Should I call the doctor? Are you feeling well?" Mercury Black doffed his hood and smirked at her while he tried to rearrange his silvery locks. "Anything to report?"

She peered out at him from under her hood, where only red eyes and bronze skin and the barest indication of her minty green hair could be seen. "No. Just like last night. And the night before. And the night before that. Aaaaaaand the night before—"

"Okay, okay, Emerald, I think I get the idea." They gazed upon the empty landscape together. "Man, there's nothing out here. People, Grimm, anything. I don't know why she keeps sending patrols this way."

"Neither do I, but I'm not gonna tell the boss no. Especially not when it's what Miss Branwen wants." Emerald doffed her own hood with a sigh. Unlike Mercury, it seemed every follicle of her hair was trimmed and shaped just so to frame her face from chin to eyebrows. "How're things back at camp?"

"Could be better. Provisions are getting kinda low. We're gonna have to do something soon." He suddenly seemed a bit awkward. "They actually sent me to come get you."

Emerald's heart sank a little as she assumed why. "I've already set a couple of traps this week. Isn't it someone else's turn?"

All he could do was shrug in reply. "That ain't my call. Come on, Emmy. Let's go face the music."

"Great." She followed him down from the top of their little dune and back toward camp, a trip which they spent in silence until curiosity got the better of her. "Miss Branwen's been gone a while. I wonder what's up."

"I know better than to ask questions. I'm just the errand boy. You're just the errand girl. The less we know, the less we gotta worry about."

She raised her brow at this. "First, I am nobody's errand girl. Second, we're tribe members. We have a right to know."

"Oh no. This isn't really a rabbit hole I feel like jumping into. All I wanna do is my job." He glanced back at their footprints in the sand — his sank much deeper than hers did — to be sure no one was in pursuit. A few minutes later, their camp came into view, although from here it was little more than a dark smudge in the nondescript desert landscape. As they closed in, that smudge became a solid wall of stone and a gate, bracketed by two guards.

"I'd yell 'who goes there' but you left like an hour ago and you're literally the only people out here anyway," one of them said.

Emerald instantly recognized her voice and cackled lowly. "Enjoying guard duty, Vernal?"

"Oh yeah. What a blast." Playfulness glittered in her icy blue eyes as the two walked up, despite the low light. "Miss Cinder wants you in the big top. She's already waiting." She rapped a fist on the thick wooden door. "Patrol's back!"

The gate swung to one side on a wave of bassy creaks and they entered the camp. Emerald and Mercury walked through a neatly arranged tent city whose sandy streets were entirely abandoned; after all, everyone but a select few was fast asleep. Despite their humble construction, every dwelling they passed displayed the care and attention paid by the people who lived within. There were no patches for holes, as there were no holes to patch, nor frayed edges, nor missing stitches, which was a testament both to the diligence of the individual occupants and the way Raven treated her tribe. Toward the center of the area stood a much larger and taller crimson edifice, though it was a tent like the rest. The flickering of a fire within became visible beyond a slightly dislodged entrance flap as they drew close.

Emerald chose to lead the way inside. This was Raven's tent, the de facto capitol building of their tribe, but in her absence it was occupied by her second-in-command — the woman seated on the far side of a fine oaken table with her back turned as she stared into the fireplace set against the canvas wall. Her hair was chest-length and black as the desert night until it faded into a dusky gray when the strands curled to their ends, styled to cascade over the left side of her head like a waterfall. A red dress clung to the base of her shoulders, replete with ornate sewn embellishments that swirled below a diamond-shaped cutout centered on her spine and shoulder blades and down the full length of each sleeve. This trim shone with multiple colors — the whole design was actually built from Dust inserts, not thread — as she sat motionless in the dim, ruddy glow. Emerald and Mercury stood on the other side of the table in silence, waiting to be addressed before they spoke.

"Report," she finally said, her voice as weightless as the wind, yet backed by the same subtle might that dominated her rigid posture.

"Sector is clean, Miss Cinder," Emerald said. "No people, no Grimm. As expected."

"Good." A full moment passed between that word and the next. "Sit." They obeyed, both electing to keep their cloaks on for the moment. Cinder finally turned to face them. No emotion whatsoever glittered in her visible yellow eye — her left lay hidden behind her hair — and her pale face was entirely blank. "I want to know how much bait we have left."

Mercury knew this situation better than Emerald, so he replied. "Six orphans from the last raid. As long as we keep them calm and away from the other kids, two months' worth. Easy."

"The Grimm do not concern me, but our lack of stores does. If Raven has not returned by tomorrow night, prepare one of the children for insertion into the village eight kilometers south. We will pick over its corpse once the monsters are done cleaning it out." Despite the grisly intimation of her orders, not once did her expression or tone waver. Her unyielding eye went to Emerald. "You will do the honors."

"Y-yes ma'am," she replied, voice shaky.

That hesitance earned her a vague squint. "What?"

Emerald's blood froze solid. "I, uh, I just, I mean, I've done the last two."

Cinder regarded her for uncomfortable aeons in total silence until the girl began to writhe atop her seat cushion and stare anywhere _but_ at her. "I suppose you have a point. If I do not find a volunteer, however, it will still fall to you."

While she should have felt better, the emotion was beyond Emerald's grasp. "Yes ma'am."

Noise from outside drew all their gazes a second after she spoke. A breathless Vernal poked her head through the flap. "Yo. She's back."

Emerald and Mercury both relaxed to various degrees, but Cinder only stood up and moved off to the side in preparation. Raven Branwen strode into the tent a moment later, plentiful ebony hair carefully tucked to one side so it wouldn't get caught on anything as she entered. Her black boots emitted a heavy sound with every step on the wooden floor. She too wore a cloak, although this was discarded onto a hook in short order. Underneath it lay a red and black top and a black pleated skirt, with black thigh-high stockings that ended atop her black boots. Both forearms were covered in layered greaves which matched her outfit. Feathers hung from the belt-like contraption that clung to her hips, which held a titanic sword sheath and a rectangular red flap of fabric that wrapped around her back. She came to a stop and regarded the three of them. "Home sweet home, I guess," she finally remarked with a smirk.

"Welcome back," Cinder replied with a polite dip of her head, though her voice remained the same as before. "All is in order."

"I wouldn't expect anything less." Her eyes went to Emerald and Mercury — he returned the look with a chilly, if respectful stare. "What did you do this time?" she joked.

"Just reporting on our patrol and making plans for a raid," he finally said with a grin. "I guess we don't need to worry about that now, though."

"I sure as hell ain't. Right now all I wanna do is sleep." Raven took the seat Cinder had once occupied and waved at the tent entrance. "You're dismissed. Get some rest while you can."

They vacated the room with due haste and left the two women alone — Emerald made sure to appropriately seal the flaps behind her on the way out. Cinder took the cushion Mercury abandoned. "You were gone a while."

Raven detached her greaves and the sword sheath to make sitting a bit more comfortable. Her red eyes were dim with exhaustion. "The old man is getting suspicious about Ironwood. So am I. I can't even get close to the Government District in Atlas lately."

"Curious."

"Yeah. I have no idea what's goin' on up there anymore." From one of the many concealed pockets on her person, Raven plucked her black-framed Scroll. To her surprise, she found it able to latch on to Vacuo's CCT signal. "I _thought_ you relocated the camp."

Cinder was a statue again, unmoved and unmovable. "Slightly. To facilitate communication with you, were it to become necessary."

"Hmm." A backlog of encrypted messages began to flood onto her device. She started with the most recent and frowned. "Gods help me, what do you want now, little brother?" she muttered with displeasure. Teeth bared, she snatched her weapon off the floor and drew it from its sheath — a crimson straight saber with a tapered tip — and stood up. Before she unleashed her Semblance, however, she sent a reply to Qrow with her free hand and waited.

"Leaving again so soon?" Cinder asked quietly.

"I hope not." Unfortunately, the answer she got sank that idea. "Damn it. They want me to open a portal."

"I do hope you aren't gone for another four months."

"If I have it my way I'll be back in four minutes." With time to kill, Raven decided to sit again and wait. "I should probably tell you this now. I came through Impulsum Umbra on my way here. Lapis is a wreck. Time might be running out faster than we thought."

The shadow of a smile passed over Cinder's stony face. "I stand ready to claim what is mine."

This sentiment earned her a rather dour gaze. "It's not yours yet. You still have to answer to the old woman first."

She could not have cared less. "As I said, I stand ready."

Raven's Scroll emitted a chime before she could retort; her brother indicated that they were ready for her in coded language, although he didn't actually want her to make the trip. Again she stood, sword in hand, and took a few steps away from the table. "Well, good news. I'm not going anywhere. Someone's coming to us."

She spun on her heel and swung a downward slash of her blade in one fluid motion. The edge tore a ragged, blood-colored hole in space-time — over the course of five seconds it spun and opened into a twirling, oval, crimson portal. They both stared at it expectantly. Through this ruddy gap stepped a weary Amber, who recoiled upon seeing Cinder's empty visage and turned away. "Oh," she grumbled. "It's you."

As with Raven, she dipped her head in respect despite Amber's frigid reaction to her presence. "Good evening, Lady Grace."

"Uh huh." Amber nailed her attention to Raven, hellbent on ignoring Cinder's existence. "Sister." They shared a brief — if slightly awkward — hug. "It's been too long."

"It has been a while, hasn't it." Raven nodded at her second. "Go to bed. You look like you've been up all day."

"Very well." Cinder rose and took her leave, departing like a ghost through the flaps.

In her wake, Raven and Amber shared a pointed look as the former sheathed her blade and let the portal close. "I'm not gonna have this talk with you again."

That warning went entirely ignored. "She's the best option we have? Really?"

"It's not my decision. And before you ask, yes, I saw Lapis, and yes, it's even worse than you think." Once more, Raven sat at the oaken table; her refusal to argue brought enough calm to the situation for Amber to follow her lead. "But we can talk that over later. We've clearly got some other problem. I'm sure the old man didn't send you out here just so we could catch up and/or argue about her successor. Again."

"Unfortunately, yes." Amber produced her bronze Scroll and flicked it open. She showed Raven the picture of Opher. "Ring any bells?"

Raven gazed upon his face with thought-narrowed eyes for a while. "Can't say it does. Awful bland-looking. Why do we care about him?"

"I'll get there." A little bit of awkward tapping brought his passport into view next.

"Uh huh." Raven digested this new information until she busted out laughing upon reading his name. "You're kidding me. Opher? Wow." Amber's failure to smile finally transmitted the seriousness of the situation. "What are you not telling me?"

An explanation came after Amber took a breath. "It's hearsay, but… we think this guy managed to kill Jade Tock—"

"Who?" Raven cut in. "Oh, wait, the Faunus bitch with the metal teeth and the invincibility Semblance, right? Huh."

Amber pressed on. "Yes, and then we believe he penetrated Vale with a fake passport. Why? We don't know."

Admittedly, Raven wouldn't have been able to pick out fake documentation even if she was told what to look for, so on this she took Amber's word. She gave back the Scroll and clasped her hands on the tabletop. "Okay, I'm listening."

Getting comfortable on the cushion was no mean feat for a woman so used to actual chairs. Amber squirmed furiously. "Ozpin wants to know if you've heard anything about him outside of Atlas."

Something else was afoot here, but Raven bided her time. "In, what, the three villages that exist in Solitas?" A stern look from Amber got her back on topic. "Can I get a better description of him than just his face?"

"He has a sleeve of tattoos on his left arm. That's his most distinguishing physical feature. He also seems to wear hats a lot. Camouflage ones… I forget what the style is called. Wide brims."

"Tattoos and hats…" Raven allowed her mind to wander. "I did hear some talk about a man that helped people escape a Grimm attack in that little town closest to the north pole. Said he wore a weird-looking white hat. The pattern was all blocky."

Amber brought up one of the few pictures Qrow managed to take of his target and showed it to her. "Like this?" It was indeed Opher in his usual digital camo boonie hat.

"Yeah, I guess." The true nature of her concerns continued to evade Raven; she kept playing the game to find them out. "This wouldn't be the first time somebody managed to sneak into a Kingdom. So he killed Tock — good on him for that. Why do we care?"

"We're almost certain he may have intervened in a training exercise at Beacon Academy. And we're nearly as certain he went out there to help a particular team... one with your daughter and her half-sister on it." Amber examined Raven for her reaction in silence.

At first, she didn't really have one. Her gaze sank to the table between them, after which she allowed her face to soften in thought. "That's not all, is there?"

"No." Now Amber looked more grave than Raven had ever seen before. "Olivine and I examined the site. We detected Ash so fine it wasn't visible."

"That's not possible," she countered, her red eyes wide. "Only the old man can—"

"No, it was worse than that. Now you see the problem." Unable to find any respite on the cushion, and now too nervous to try, Amber stood up to pace slowly around the room. "This guy was on campus from half-past midnight Vale time, all the way to after ten in the morning. He had the opportunity. If it is him, and we felt his Ash, he certainly has the means. Nobody can burn Dust that efficiently without knowing the true art. All we lack now is a motive. Why?"

"Ask him."

Amber turned to look at her with a frown. "I... have to ask you some questions first."

She instantly bristled with insult. "Is this going where I think this is going?"

"I'm covering every angle, that's all. You aren't getting sentimental, are you? Looking out for your daughter with friends you've been hiding from us in Atlas? Is there anything you need to say?"

Those words drove Raven to her feet, seething with anger. "I haven't seen Yang in almost seventeen years. Do you _really_ think I'd risk hiding a new magician from Salem just to try and be her mother now? The old woman would vaporize me! How fucking stupid do you think I am?"

"Just because you didn't love Yang then doesn't mean you wouldn't now. Regrets have a way of clinging to your heart." The two Maidens engaged in a silent, terrifying staring match that seemed to drag on for centuries. "Yes or no, Raven."

"No! And how dare you question my loyalty! It's been years!"

"Listen, I get it. I also know that you have every right to harbor resentment. I know how you ascended. I'd be mad too. But right now we have a potential crisis and Ozpin wants to know if he's got all hands on deck. It's nothing personal. I promise." Amber's smile became a peace offering. "Besides, better I ask these questions than Salem, right?"

"Fuckin'..." Raven plopped back down on the cushion, eyes hidden with her left hand. "I know I'm still the newest Maiden, but you people have to trust me at some point. I've done everything you wanted. I even relinquished my second-in-command to replace Lapis. What more can I give?"

"I'm sorry, sis. Really. It's just business." Back to pacing she went. "You understand our concerns. If the Roses have allied with another magical bloodline, the agreement is in serious trouble. Peace on Remnant is at stake."

"There can't be another bloodline, damn it, you've been wiping them out for fucking millennia." Raven rested her chin in her hand and stared into the dim light. "The Maidens Four, the old man, the old woman, Qrow… and the silver-eyed. That's it. That's every magic user on Remnant. Isn't it?" She looked back when Amber didn't reply. "Isn't it?"

"It should be." Her fists clenched with unease. "And yet… I guess the planet's an awfully big place to hide. Maybe we missed something." Calm returned to Amber's face on the back of a few measured breaths. "They lived, by the way. Yang and Ruby. In no small part, I imagine, because the latter has partial access to her holy magic. We felt that, too."

"Damn, already?" Raven rubbed at her tired face with a sigh. "Ruby's turning into her mother, Lapis is dying, Ironwood is… I don't even _know_ what he's up to at this point, and now this wild card shows up on the table. Shit. No wonder you're all so antsy."

Amber decided to try and sit again. "Yes. We might need to borrow one of your people. Any good spies in your crew?"

Her face remained hidden, though no amount of fingers could obscure her angry sigh. "Emerald's the best I have at being sneaky, but—I may need her myself. Mercury said something about a raid, so our stores must be low."

"On what village?"

Raven dropped her hand and gazed at her. "I don't know. Probably the one I saw south of here on the way in. It's the closest."

Back to her Scroll, this time to fiddle with a map. Amber squinted at the screen until the overlay loaded, showing her the settlement in question. "Do it fast. Ozpin wants me to deal with it while I'm here… by tomorrow night at the latest." Here she flashed Raven a resigned smile. "Got a spare bed?"

* * *

Beacon's too-large cafeteria was more full now than any of them had ever seen before, although at first neither Ruby, Pyrrha, nor any of their teammates could quite figure out why. The tables were laden with upperclassmen. Beacon uniforms were _everywhere_.

"I, uh, I didn't think this many people attended," Ruby admitted as the eight of them all sat down. They'd chosen a table toward the corner of the giant room. All eyes were upon them. "Wait," she finally realized. "Are they…"

"Watching us?" Jaune concluded for her. "Oh yeah. Everybody."

"Ummmm." Ruby covered her head with the hood of her brilliant red cloak and made herself as tiny as possible. "I did not plan for this. I did not plan for _any_ of this."

Hushed murmurs filled the air, increasing with each second that passed. "I should have stayed in the infirmary," Weiss complained under her breath. While she was dressed as usual, her right arm now occupied a sling to stabilize it while her Aura continued repairs. "Is this the same thing that happened to you last night?"

"There are waaaaaay more people than followed us to the tower." Nora spun on the bench to take a quick head count. "By a lot. I'm with Ruby, I didn't think we had this many classmates? I've never seen these people before."

"I bet most of the juniors and seniors were out doing missions too," Yang surmised. "I know what Miss Goodwitch said, but, uh… how many students do you think those Geists took out?"

"I'm not sure I want an answer to that question." Pyrrha, eyes shielded, jumped when someone new sat down beside her. "Oh! Ah, hello—"

Coco peered at them over her sunglasses with a little smirk. "What's up, freshies?" She regarded Blake with a little more decorum — Weiss, however, was ignored entirely — and blinked at the blood which still remained visible in Ruby's eyes. "Yo. You guys are the talk of the town. So to speak."

"We've noticed," Ruby replied nervously. "Um… I don't think we've met?"

"Oh, ah, this is Coco," Blake stated quietly. "She's a sophomore." Reservations about whether or not her relationship with Velvet was a matter to be discussed publicly kept her quiet about it.

"Neat, you remembered my name. You know, Glynda hasn't said a word about how you guys managed to survive. She even went out real early this morning to examine the site herself and still… nothin'." Rather impolitely, Coco stifled a large yawn before adding, "So, what's your secret?" The amount of unbridled awkwardness that oozed from most of them made her blink a few times; this wasn't at all how she expected the conversation to proceed. "No, seriously," she added, removing her sunglasses for emphasis, "whatever you did, you might wanna teach some of the other freshmen how to do it too. There's another field trial soon."

" _Another_ one?!" Weiss snapped. "Are they trying to kill us?" Again, her presence went completely disregarded by Coco, whose attention remained focused on Ruby and Blake.

Ruby assuaged her would-be friend with pats on her good shoulder and gentle shush noises. "I'm not sure we're supposed to say anything about this until Miss Goodwitch figures out what happened?" she finally offered. "'Cause, you know, we don't wanna give anyone false hope. That wouldn't be cool."

"What—" Coco couldn't believe what she was hearing. "False hope about _what_? You _did_ kill those Geists, didn't you?"

Six sets of eyes met her curious gaze — Ren couldn't be bothered and Nora's mercurial interest darted all over the place, as usual — before Pyrrha could no longer maintain her evasiveness and sighed. "No. We don't know, exactly, what happened out there," she murmured. "And therefore we can't really claim victory when it just sort of happened to us."

"Uh… huh." Beads around her neck rattled slightly as a bewildered Coco slipped on her sunglasses and stood. Dissatisfaction marked her features. "Better tell _them_ that before they get other ideas." She thumbed over to the crowd and walked away.

"Yikes." Ruby turned her silver eyes to the students which had been eavesdropping and blinked. " _Yikes_. She's kinda right. What do we do?"

It was Pyrrha who decided to take charge of the problem this time around. "Well… out of all of us, I'm probably the most versed in public speaking. Let me try." She inhaled a breath and put on the most professional smile she could muster, then turned to address however many students would listen. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn't us that killed the Geists. Something happened which we cannot explain."

For a time, no response came from the crowd besides open-mouthed gawking or the uncomfortable silence of confusion. One girl with silver hair stood up abruptly — the rocket-launcher armed junior who had helped Coco the night of Nebula's death — with her hands on her hips. "Are you serious?"

Jaune screwed up all available courage to back up his leader. "Hey, what do you want? We don't know what happened either."

Another girl stood, this one in uniform — the blue-haired senior which returned Ruby's wave the morning after their first trial. Her brass-colored eyes gleamed with suspicion. "Are you all hiding something from us?" she asked, her Atlesian accent even thicker than Schwarze's. Several students uttered support and their own version of the question.

"We've lost control of this situation," Weiss muttered to Ruby.

"I don't think we ever had it," she mumbled back. More of the upperclassmen began to stand up. "Uhhhh…"

"My whole team died trying to kill those monsters my sophomore year! Why won't you tell us how you did it?"

"Yeah! We could use the help!"

"At least tell the freshmen!"

Despite being vastly outnumbered, Pyrrha refused to retreat. "If you honestly think we'd hold something back that would help everyone, then… then this conversation is over!" she snapped, as angry as anyone on Ruby's team or her own had ever seen her. Even Nora winced faintly.

"Enough." All eyes went to the source of the new voice — Glynda Goodwitch, who'd just stepped in through the double doors but remained quiet until she saw how far out of hand things were. Her heels clacked sharply on the stone floor as she walked toward the congregation. "Miss Nikos has a point. We simply have nothing to give you. I've been out to see the site myself. No one is hiding anything. I do not know what happened."

The emotions of the crowd began to cool — whether this was due to Glynda's statement or her mere presence was anyone's guess — and the students backed down. Pyrrha stepped aside as Glynda put herself between her gaggle and the rest of the students. "I wish we had something to tell you," the redhead added at length. "I'm sorry."

They regarded her with narrow-eyed expressions of what seemed like jealousy, as if asking without words why her friends had been saved when so many of theirs weren't. Glynda detected this smoldering disdain and turned to the eight children with some advice. "Perhaps you should order in," she muttered.

"But…" was the only word Ruby could get out before Glynda just shook her head.

"If we've made them this upset — and vice versa — then maybe she has a point." Pyrrha nodded to her team, who all stood up and joined her to leave. Ruby and her crew followed shortly later.

No one spoke again until the whole group was well clear of the cafeteria and on their way back to the dorms. "This is a problem," Blake stated firmly. "We need to tell the truth. I don't think we can wait." Uncomfortable silence was her reward. "Really?"

"Nnnh." Ruby massaged her temples, each breath a measured huff as she fought for internal calm. "I didn't think people would react like _that_. I wonder how long those Grimm were there."

Pyrrha crossed her arms and frowned at the fluffy white clouds in the morning sky above them. "Too long. I'm beginning to agree with Blake. We need to speed this process up at the least. Oh, I wish we had some way to get in contact with him."

"Maybe we do." They all looked at Jaune. "What about the stuff we bought? Isn't there a Scroll number? Some way to contact the shop?"

"Oh!" The redhead lightly slapped her forehead and laughed briefly. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"

Blake, hands on her hips, remained unconvinced. "But what if there's not?"

Ruby snapped her fingers and waved for attention. "We can just ask Miss Goodwitch for it! If she's in charge of figuring out how much the students spend on supplies, she's gotta know the shops' details, right?"

"I'll buy that," Weiss replied, "but what story are we going to feed her?"

"That we want to thank the owner for the ammunition!" Yang looked at Ruby with a smile. "Which we actually did wanna do."

Nora chased the conversation all the way around, rocking lightly on her heels, before she finally chimed in with another caveat. "If they're even open. It is kinda the weekend."

"It's better than nothing," Ruby said, her optimism and smile unbendable.

"It's…" Blake pinched the bridge of her nose to fight off an encroaching headache. "I don't think this is a good idea. I think we need to come clean."

"Blaaaaaake. Blake." Ruby zipped over to the Faunus and engaged her in close-range staring which made the latter visibly uncomfortable until she backed up one step. "Listen. We don't even know what we don't know and what we do know. If we don't know what we don't and do know, how can we make an informed decision?" she asked, fingers pointing from one side to the other with every "know" she uttered. "And that starts by talking to the people who definitely know what they know and what they don't."

"That's your idea of a convincing argument? How in the world did you ever graduate from anything?" Weiss asked through a smirk.

"I'm very cute. People cut me slack." Ruby directed a huff her way. "Besides, I'm smart! I'm just not… um, word smart."

"Debatable. It's a plan, anyway. Let's carry it out." Yang brushed an errant hair off the shoulder of her far-too-cropped brown jacket and strode back toward the cafeteria entrance just as Glynda emerged. "I got this. Wait here."

Pyrrha watched the two blondes come together, then studied their quiet conversation. "She seems to be buying it." She watched Yang retrieve her Scroll. "Oh?"

A minute later, the brawler returned to their number with a victorious grin, waving the device in one hand. "Nailed it," she said. "Come on. Let's get back to our rooms and do this."

Minutes later they were there; this time they all piled into Ruby's dorm and closed the door. All that was left was to decide who would make the call. Almost without urging and before anyone even voiced the question, Ruby looked toward Pyrrha. "You wanna do it?" she asked. "Or should I?"

"Ah, well, if you want." Pyrrha took Yang's Scroll and eyed the number. "All right. Here goes."

It rang. And rang. And rang. The redhead stood there awkwardly with the device by her ear and stared out the window until, finally, a voice came from the other end. "What the… uh, hello?" It was Indigo Stahl.

While not the person she wanted, this was at least a good start. "Hello! Ah, sorry to bother you. This is Pyrrha Nikos."

Indigo's flailing was almost audible. "Wh-wh—how in the world did you get this number and _why_ would you ever call _me_?"

They gathered around Pyrrha to listen in on the conversation; to help, she placed the call on speaker. "Miss Goodwitch gave it to us."

"Crap. Am I in trouble?"

The redhead chuckled lightly. "No, not at all. My team and Ruby's wanted to thank you for your help with the ammunition. It really paid off in our field trial."

"Hey, gun friend!" Ruby chimed in. "You're my favorite Dust shop now! I mean, shop owner. You're not literally a Dust shop."

" _Pffffff_ , gun friend. Well, you're welcome. I'm glad it was worth the money."

Right about now Pyrrha realized she'd already run out of rope as far as excuses were concerned. She bounced on her feet while struggling to think up a reason to keep the call going. "While I've got you, is Opher around? He…" Her friends began to mouth suggestions at her; Ruby and Nora were the most enthusiastic while Blake just shook her head and stepped away from the cluster. Yang's silent idea was the one she chose to use. "I think he might have left something on campus."

"Huh? Oh, I'm not actually at the shop. We're not open today. This is just my work number. What did he leave?"

"Crap!" Ruby hissed. She, Weiss, Yang, and Nora broke away to hash out a quick lie, which left Pyrrha on the hook alone — Jaune tried his best to support her even though he had no ideas to give.

"I think this is his hat," the redhead said awkwardly. Everyone fell silent behind her.

"What? He was wearing his hat when I saw him yesterday."

"It's not working!" Nora snapped as quietly as she could manage.

"Well, it has the same sort of pattern, but this one is blue. It's rather nice, actually," was the best Pyrrha had to offer. Uncomfortable silence followed.

"Huh. I guess he would buy a new one, the one he usually wears is kinda beaten up." A brief pause. "I don't feel right just giving out his Scroll number, though. Tell you what: I'll give you the number of the inn where he's staying. He might be there, he's got the day off."

Everyone but Ren and Blake released a sigh of relief. "That would be lovely, thank you," Pyrrha replied cheerfully. Once she had the number, she brought their chat to a graceful conclusion. "Sorry about the bother. We'll definitely recommend your shop to our classmates."

If Indigo was suspicious about anything, none of it came across in her voice. "Neat. We could use the money. Oh, uh, um, if you come by again… can I have your autograph?"

"Certainly! I'll sign anything! Ah, well, except body parts." Pyrrha allowed Indigo a laugh before she added, "Thank you again! Goodbye!"

"I _cannot_ believe that worked," Weiss stated as the redhead dialed the new number.

"S'not over yet," Ruby stated. She watched Pyrrha place Yang's Scroll to her ear.

"Hello, yes, I'm looking for someone named Opher," the redhead said politely. "I'm not sure what his last name is—oh, my name is Pyrrha. Yes, I'll wait." Her eyes went to the others as she placed this call on speaker as well.

They didn't have long to wait. "You know, I'm only surprised it took you this long," Opher said, disdainful resignation tinting his voice. "What do you want?"

"Some answers would be nice," Blake said evenly.

"Oh, I see the gang's all here. Well, sorry to disappoint you."

Yang crossed her arms. "You gotta give us something, man, all of the students are up in arms about this whole mess."

"I believe that would be your fault for constructing a shoddy story, not mine."

"It's not like that!" Ruby paced slowly around the room, careful to remain in audible range of her sister's Scroll. "Uh, well, I mean, we completely left you out of it like you asked. All we mentioned was the white flash, then we blamed everything on that… but a whole lot of students lost friends to those Grimm and they're kinda mad that we don't have a good explanation."

"Mad? Why?"

"Because they want to know how they can do it too." Yang let her lilac eyes narrow a little. "And so do we."

Silence, which stretched on until Pyrrha felt it necessary to look at the device to check if the call had been dropped. "I'm not talking about this anymore over the Scroll," he finally said.

"Perhaps we might speak when you make your next delivery?" Pyrrha asked. "We do have another trial coming up and I suspect Miss Goodwitch is going to direct more business to your shop."

" _Another_ one? Are they trying to kill you guys?"

"That's exactly what I said!" Weiss confirmed, a hand on her hip and a scowl on her face.

This pause was somewhat shorter than the last. "Maybe. Seriously, though, how did you figure out where I was staying?"

Ruby gave the answer first. "From your boss. She didn't wanna give out your personal number, so…"

"Huh. That was nice of her. Look, I have to go."

"Ah, well, goodbye! For now. Perhaps." Pyrrha blinked when he hung up without an acknowledgment of her farewell, then handed Yang back her Scroll. "I guess we just have to deal with it for a few days."

"And do what?" Blake asked, motioning at the closed door. "Hide in here until people stop asking us awkward questions?"

The redhead clasped her hands behind her back and smiled awkwardly. "I suppose we'll just have to evade and apologize until everyone calms down. They can't stay too upset." Her smile abruptly departed. "Otherwise, we'll all have to fight the Grimm on campus instead of in the forest."

* * *

Two other students were up to some funny business just a couple of dorm buildings away. Penny and Ciel were holed up in their room; the former sat on one of the beds, dead-eyed and unblinking. The latter sat at one of the little desks instead, attention split between her Scroll and the other girl. "You're forgetting to blink again," she warned.

"I've relegated that subroutine to an idle process. I'll bring it back up to priority when I'm around people which aren't you." Most of her processing power was occupied by a far more important task. Huge tracts of data being crunched by circuits in her false skull emitted an impressive amount of heat; anyone who laid a finger on her synthetic scalp and hair would think the girl had a terrific fever. "I'd really like to package and transmit this dataset to Colonel Cordovin before we go pretend to be interested in signing up for classes."

"Wait." Ciel awkwardly shut down her Scroll and put it away. "Are you still scanning?"

"Oh, no, not anymore. I'm processing one last set of traffic right now." Penny's head tilted to one side as some of her internal workload slipped into the processors responsible for her speech; she needed every CPU thread she had if she wanted to get this done in any reasonable amount of time. "Personal; discard. Personal; discard. Noise to signal threshold; discard. Personal; discard…" And then she fell silent, her head returning to the straight and level.

Ciel sat up a little straighter. "Got something?"

"I'm not sure." Penny began to blink again, quite a few times, until the actuators in her face were brought under control. "You're a person with feelings, so you tell me… do you think Ruby Rose and her team have been acting odd since they got back?"

"'Person with feelings', Penny? Really?" After rolling her eyes, she considered the question. Ciel had already heard the official story, but lacked much of an opinion. She shrugged and turned her Scroll back on, confident her data wouldn't get caught by Penny's interception equipment and added to her workload. "I guess I'd act weird too if a force I didn't understand killed a bunch of Grimm right before my eyes." She glanced at her Scroll, but Penny refused to break eye contact — whether this was blank staring or a demand to continue the conversation, she could only guess. "What? You know something else?"

"I might." The last few bits of metadata that Penny ran through the wringer of her processors caused her head to tilt once more. "Yes, I absolutely do. They had help. They were just talking to him, in fact."

"Wait, what?" Ciel stood up and walked over. "To who?"

"A man named Opher." Her expression grew blank as she began to examine entry and exit data on Beacon Academy's wireless ID scanner system, though the distance between herself and the machinery at the airship pads — the safest point of network access — made this somewhat difficult. She quietly examined logs from the day of the trial, found Opher's departure scan, then worked back until seeing his entry scan the night before. This granted her surface-level records of his passport. "Riese, Opher. Atlesian. Twenty-five years of age." Her bright green eyes crossed slightly. "Currently employed at Diamond Dust, 180 Verusa Avenue, Northwest District, Vale."

"And you're sure this guy is involved?"

When Penny opened her mouth again, it was Ruby's voice that came from between her lips. " _Uh, well, I mean, we completely left you out of it like you asked,_ " she said, replaying the relevant bit of the conversation. " _All we mentioned was the white flash, then we blamed everything on that… but a whole lot of students lost friends to those Grimm and they're kinda mad that we don't have a good explanation._ " And then her own voice returned. "I would say yes."

"Wow." Ciel put away her Scroll and scratched under her beret thoughtfully. "If that's the case, this guy must be almost as strong as you. Huntsman? No… he never would have gotten into the city."

"Let's find out." Penny's eyes rolled about unnaturally as she literally and figuratively searched for the information. This proved fruitless; she folded her arms with a huff. "Oh, fiddlesticks. I can't access his full information from here. I'll have to ask the Colonel to do it on her end."

It felt like a good time to pace, so Ciel did, slowly, around Penny's bed. "You think it's worth the trouble?"

Her expression softened. "Well, think of it this way: he must have killed those two Geists as well. Ruby Rose seems to think he doesn't want anyone to _know_ that. Why? I'm curious now."

Ciel smirked at this. "You're always curious… but, yes, I think I see your point. If he wants to stay out of the spotlight, he might be a friend."

"Aha! Now you're thinking like me!" Penny giggled a bit when her partner gently pushed her on the arm. "I'll have all of this crunched in just a few minutes. Remind me to start blinking again before we leave, okay?"


	9. The Aspect of Shadow

Over a day had passed; the tide of curiosity displayed no signs of abating, especially with Beacon's administration equally mum about whatever had occurred. Ruby found herself engaged yet again in a hopeless conversation with another student, whose name she didn't even know, as the sun dropped below the eastern horizon and the rising Moon pointed its broken hemisphere directly at Remnant. He was tall — obnoxiously so, even compared to people like Pyrrha and Jaune — had short reddish-brown hair, and a tremendously grumpy disposition. She was reasonably certain he was another freshman, but that was all. "It just seems a little suspicious," he said, eyeballing her from his lofty height. "You roll into the spot where Nebula loses her whole team and come out without a scratch?"

"Well, that's not true," Ruby countered, poking the tips of her index fingers together, "Weiss and Blake got pretty messed up—"

"You know what I meant, pipsqueak."

Her cheeks puffed up with irritation. "I do not appreciate being called that even if I am very portable." He squinted at this, so she squinted back, with all the intimidation she could manage while lacking a foot of height in comparison. "We don't get it either. We're sorry that we don't get it, also, I guess, but we're just as lost as everyone else!" She lost control of her mouth as the day's tribulations found their chance to flood out. "And I understand that everyone's mad that we don't have any answers or anyway to help them and that their friends all died when none of us did but I can't do anything about it!" she added in one breath, gasping for air afterward. Silence from him prompted her to look up. "Sorry. It's been a long day."

"I can tell." He decided to drop the conversation there and move away. "Sure would be nice if someone knew what happened."

"I… know," Ruby sighed at his back as he walked off. She shuffled over to a bench and sat down, both hands over her eyes as she fought off another headache. "I just wanted to go to the cafeteria and get some cookies, why does this keep happening." Her brow furrowed when she felt someone else sit down. "Listen, I don't—!"

The sight of Penny's smiling face stopped her rant before it could begin. "Hello!" she chirped, unbowed happiness at a time when Ruby desperately needed some. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good." Back she went to rubbing at her aching eyes. "Did you come to ask me questions too?"

"Oh, no, not really." Penny cocked her head at Ruby's surprised look. "I just thought you could use a friend. Where's the rest of your team?" Her face went blank. "That was a question. Whoops."

A snort escaped Ruby's lips before she answered. "Back in our room. I volunteered to go get dinner. Or, um, to try and go get dinner, I guess." Her eyes drifted toward the sunset and frowned. "This is so dumb. I thought everyone would be happy."

"It doesn't help that we have to go back into battle soon." Penny glanced away and adjusted her pink bow — in reality, the hair ornament constituted some of her communications interception equipment and she couldn't pass up the chance to trawl airwaves while being outside. "And there's still probably some stress left over from the last two trials. I bet the whole class is frazzled."

"Except _you_ ," Ruby pointed out. "You haven't looked frazzled since you got here."

Penny giggled at this and shrugged. "I suppose you're right. Fighting the Grimm doesn't really bother me."

Thankful for a different subject to mull over, Ruby swung her legs and eyed Penny curiously. "You know, I've been meaning to ask. How the heck did you kill all of those dang things the morning you saved us? There were hundreds!"

"Oh, Ruby, I already told you! I throw swords at them until they stop moving." The wholly unsatisfied look on her face was exactly the outcome Penny wanted. "I get that look a lot, you know. Like I said before, a lot of my weaponry is proprietary technology. I have to keep it quiet until it's ready for widespread use, but a lot people ask me things when they see me fight, too."

Ruby's silver eyes lit up as she saw a chance for advice. "Then how do _you_ handle the questions?"

"It's all about the image you project," she replied, gently tossing some of her false orange hair. "If you look upset, people will assume you have a reason to be upset." She tilted her head once more and decided to probe Ruby a bit. "Do you have a reason to be upset?"

"Whaaaaa—eerrrrrrrr…" She hopped to her feet and walked away a few steps, placing Penny at her back. "I'm only upset because I've got no answers," she said, a little more truthful than she really meant to be. "What happened? _Why_ did it happen? Why us?"

Penny moved over to stand at her side, wearing a smile which only got larger when Ruby acknowledged her presence. "Don't tell her I said this, but Ciel feels the same way pretty often herself. And she's been in Academies longer than I have." A true statement, although not in any way Ruby would have suspected. "I suppose this is the life that has chosen us. Questions, questions… and not many answers."

"I—huh. Maybe so." Ruby wasn't entirely sure if this realization made her feel better or worse — the way her face screwed up, probably the latter. Despite this, her chat with Penny was a refreshing change from the conversations that had dominated her weekend so far. Her smile said she wanted to keep it going. "Thanks. For, you know, not being, like, pushy, I guess?"

"You're welcome!" Penny extended her left hand. "What are friends for, after all?"

"Yeah!" Ruby shook it after a moment's consideration and grinned just before the discomfort arrived. "Yeow! Agh, I thought Yang's handshakes were bad, you pinch like a Death Stalker claw."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Both girls looked up as Ciel walked toward them from the cafeteria. "There you are!" she called, retracting her hand and using it to wave instead.

At first, Ciel was too busy adjusting her beret to notice Penny's company. Seeing Ruby caused her to freeze for a moment. "How did you two end up together?"

"Penny thought I needed a buddy. She was right." Ruby pawed lightly at the nape of her neck and grinned. "Oh! Are you hungry? I could buy."

"Thank you, but no, I've already eaten. I was waiting on Ciel. She really likes to take it slow." Ciel's hands-on-hips reaction caused a giggle to slip out. "Just a little Semblance humor."

"Cute. Come on, we should get back before it starts raining," she advised, pointing toward a wall of titanic white clouds in the west whose faces were lit up by the dying sun.

"Don't be silly, we have plenty of... _time_!"

Ciel pinched her nose with a sigh. "Please stop."

Ruby gave her a few pats on the shoulder. "As someone related to a self-proclaimed pun artist, I feel your pain. Anyway, yeah, I should probably beat it too. If I don't come back with food Weiss is gonna stab me." She broke away from the pair and headed toward the cafeteria, waving. "Bye! Thanks for the talk, Penny!"

"Goodbye, Ruby! Take care!" Penny tracked her until the girl went into the cafeteria building, then switched to infra-red sensors and kept watching. "She's nice. I like her."

"I suppose." Ciel finally accepted the fit of her beret and clasped her hands behind her back. "Too bad she ended up here."

"If I do my job well enough, it won't matter." Penny followed, her gait more a skip than a walk, as her partner moved toward the dorms. "You know, I still haven't heard back from the Colonel about our mystery man."

Ciel only shrugged. "We'll have to sit on it for now. It's not like we can go to Vale without permission, and I don't think we should unless we have something solid to go on."

"Agreed." Penny watched the clouds flicker with lightning for a moment; she deduced correctly that the city beyond the cliff and out of sight was currently getting pounded with rain based on how long it took thunder to reach her synthetic ears. "Considering the amount of outgoing Dust orders I keep finding in traffic, I think we'll probably see him soon anyway."

* * *

"So, just smile and nod a lot?"

"Pretty much," Ruby nodded at Jaune. He and Pyrrha were in their dorm room to get a feel for how the day had gone — as well as to offer whatever support they could. "If we're confident, everyone else is confident." She jumped as a tremendous clap of thunder rattled the panes in the window nearby. From beyond their closed door, they could hear Nora's cheerful hoot.

"She sounds entertained," Yang noted, busy texting with some of her friends still at Signal and not fully engaged with the conversation.

"I'm honestly surprised she isn't on the roof." Pyrrha walked slowly toward the window and gazed outside. The rainfall was so fierce that she could hardly see across the walkway to the dorm buildings beyond. What little light the iron street lamps emitted existed as harsh white spheres concentrated near their sources. Most illumination came from lightning in the storm above. "Classes should buy us some space for now, at least from the upperclassmen."

"Never thought we'd be strategizing against our own classmates," Blake muttered, her face buried in a book as she laid on her bed. Silence drew her eyes from the pages. "What?" she added, meeting all their gazes with a vague glare. "I'm not wrong."

"No, you're not, but…" Ruby scratched her head with a frown. "We've done it this long. May as well see it through."

"Besides, we have bigger problems coming," Weiss, stationed on her own bed, sitting upright, pointed out. She'd healed enough at last to ditch the sling her right arm once occupied, though she clearly still favored her left as she folded some of her laundry. "We need to figure out how to fight at night. Fast."

"It's cool. We've got Blake!"

The Faunus regarded Ruby's tone with a ghostly frown, but decided Weiss was right and played along. "I'm not sure I can scout for two whole teams, but I'll try."

"Eh, we'll have more people to help us this time." Yang set her Scroll aside and let her upper body hang awkwardly off the edge of her bed, chest out. She looked at her friends from this upside-down vantage point and grinned. "If we play our cards right, maybe more people than we think."

Pyrrha laughed awkwardly and stepped away from the window. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Well, good night. I'd better go try to calm Nora down so we can get _any amount_ of sleep."

"Bye Pyrrha! Bye Jaune! See you guys tomorrow!" Ruby waved enough for all four of them as the redhead lead Jaune out and shut the door behind her. For some time, the tempest outside was the only source of noise.

"You know, if we tell the truth, maybe they really would bring him on as a teacher. Then he could help everyone. All the time," Blake pointed out after a while.

"That's… a fair point," an uneasy Ruby admitted after the latest round of lightning and thunder shook the whole building around them. "I wish this storm would go away oh man my head hurts again…" she added under her breath.

"I think that'd be his choice to make." Somehow, Yang managed to contort herself in a way that let her grin directly at Blake. "I'm over it. If he gives us a reason to sing, then we sing. Right now it's not hurting anyone. Penny's right. We're making people upset because we're acting upset."

"I—" Blake shut her book and sighed. "My parents always told me not to lie, and a lie of omission is still lying, that's all. I'm not used to this."

"Sometimes you have no choice." They all looked toward Weiss, who was now as absorbed with her Scroll as Yang had been moments before. "Just a thought," she added without looking up.

Blake's mind roiled as she weighed both sides — she now understood, at least in some small way, how her father must feel when he had to make decisions as Chieftain. "Maybe you're right." She slid off her bed and stood up.

"You can't be serious," Yang remarked as she watched Blake rummage under the bed and produce a black umbrella. "It's pouring out there. Give it a rest for one night."

"I won't be long," she replied, popping it open to make sure it worked, then closing it and tucking it under one arm. "I just want to go check on a friend."

The blonde performed a neat little somersault off her bunk and landed smartly on her bare feet. "Oh, well, in that case, want a wingman?"

It was enough of a show to put a smile on Blake's face. "Thanks, but I'll have to pass. She's really shy." That grin almost ran away. "Maybe one day, though."

"Don't stay out too long," Ruby advised. Another flash and wave of thunder startled her so badly that she covered her head with both hands. "I hate this!" she snapped, mostly to herself. Then she waved a fist at the window. "Stupid weather! I'll fight you!"

Weiss' eyes rolled subtly. "You've been hanging around Yang too long."

"She's my sister, Weiss, we've lived together since I was born. I don't know what you expected."

Blake shook her head and stepped out into the hall. As she wandered down the spiraling staircase and headed toward the entrance of the dorm building, the storm outside seemed to intensify. Rain gushed from the night sky, striking the stony pavement with the thought-crushing symphony of a million wine glasses tumbling from orbit. Cloud-to-cloud lightning made it impossible for her eyes to fully adjust; the moment her pupils widened to accept the darkness, a pinkish flash would stab her sight instead. She huddled under the awning above the door and re-thought her plan. "There's no way she's outside," she mumbled. Thunder, again, loud enough to make her flatten her feline ears against her head. It felt like that strike had hit the tower.

A terrified squeal chased after it, barely loud enough to reach either set of Blake's ears through the deluge. She knew the voice — Velvet. She also knew it was likely nobody else realized the rabbit Faunus was even outside. Steeling herself against the downpour, she popped open her umbrella and stepped onto the walkway. In seconds, it was rendered pointless by splashed water from raindrops on the stone that soaked her boots, then by wind-driven rainfall that drenched the rest of her frame. "Velvet!" she called over the persistent, tumbling thunder high above. "Velvet!"

Another squeal, closer; it seemed she was caught between two of the dorm buildings closer to Beacon Tower. Blake forged a path through the torrential rainfall, leaning heavily on her enhanced eyesight whenever she wasn't busy getting blinded by pinkish flashes of lightning. Sure enough, she found a sopping wet Velvet plastered against the side of building six, crouched down with her back outward and her hands over her long ears. Blake's hand on her shoulder caused her to shriek.

"It's me!" she said, trying to position her umbrella where it would provide the most coverage possible for them both against the swirling wind and rain. "What are you doing out here?!"

"I—" Velvet choked on her fear and the rain and coughed for a moment. "Trying to… trying to get back to my dorm…" she gasped. Panic had turned her muscles to stone; shivering was all the movement she could perform at the moment.

"Come on. I'll take you to the door." The tenor of the noise changed — no longer did raindrops strike the pavement, their taps replaced by the icy fingernails of hailstones. "It's hailing. Velvet, come on." No amount of urging could get the rabbit Faunus upright. "Velvet!"

"I'm—I'm…" She dug into her soul for every ounce of available courage and stood at last. "Okay! Let's go!"

Together they ran back toward the main walkway, but when they turned the corner, a gnarly finger of lightning streaked down from the clouds and struck Beacon Tower, which sat almost directly ahead of them. Both girls were left blinded by its flash for the split-second it took for an outburst of thunder to reach them, so loud that even thought was impossible until the rumble finally died off. Blake felt Velvet slump into her side — the girl had fainted. "Velvet?" she gasped, bearing most of her weight now as hail continued to fall. She had no choice but to ditch her umbrella and awkwardly drag her toward the front door of building six, which took two agonizing minutes to accomplish. Ice pelted her the whole way. Her limp form slumped to and fro as Blake tried to get the door open; by the time they actually made it inside, another lightning strike overloaded the electrical grid and left the interior dark.

"Damn," she hissed, carefully dragging Velvet toward the center of the lobby with a hand hooked underneath each of her shoulders. Once she got there, she arranged the rabbit Faunus on her side and produced her Scroll. Ruby had been right about its waterproof nature — the device powered on without issue. She used the flashlight to examine Velvet for injuries. While Velvet's blue jumpsuit seemed to have soaked up most of the hailstones' impacts, Blake couldn't say the same for herself. Little nicks and scrapes covered her bare arms, though her Aura was already well on its way to sealing those back up. Her skull throbbed weakly thanks to a few direct hits from more sizable chunks of ice, but all in all, she was in fair shape. "Ouch," she finally mumbled before her attention went back to Velvet.

Figuring out if Velvet also took any blows to the head was difficult — no amount of searching through her chestnut hair gave her the answer. Next to be examined was her face; the makeup Velvet used to conceal her scars had been completely washed away. In the harsh white light of her Scroll, the old scars looked horrible — and there were more of them than she originally thought. Blake's mouth twisted with empathy as she moved on to examine other areas; it was then that she noticed a strange mark on the back of Velvet's neck. At first, she thought it must have been a wound from the hail, but further examination with the flashlight said otherwise. "What… what is this?" she muttered, examining the barcode. It certainly wasn't a tattoo — she ran her thumb across it and found it to be made of raised, rough scar tissue, like a burn. "Um…?"

An answer would have to wait; Velvet remained unconscious and Blake's concern about this fact overrode everything else. As she debated with herself about who to call for help, or at least advice, a sound from one of Velvet's pockets drew her eye. After a reluctant search, she found the girl's Scroll, pulled it out, and flicked it open.

"Velvet?" Coco's voice; torrential rainfall in the background made it hard for Blake to hear. "Did you make it back in time?"

"Not exactly," Blake finally replied. She knelt down by the rabbit Faunus with a sigh.

Coco almost had to yell over a nearby thunderclap. "Who is this?"

"Sorry, it's Blake Belladonna. I, um, I wanted to make sure Velvet wasn't outside in this weather. Good thing I did." Kneeling became sitting as she kept an eye on the still motionless girl. "I managed to bring her inside… dorm building six, I think this is? But she fainted and hasn't woken up yet."

"She tends to do that when it gets loud, yeah. I think her brain just shuts off because her ears are so sensitive." A moment went by before she added, "I can't leave my patrol, there's nobody to relieve me. Can you stay with her for now?"

Blake continued to mull over what to do next. "That was my plan. I'll try to get someone from my team over here to help me if she doesn't wake up soon."

"I owe you one. Listen, she's gonna be a little panicked when she comes to. Just bear with her. And… if you can, make sure you're the only one she sees when she wakes up."

This particular instruction was a bit surprising to hear straight out, but Blake already had an inkling that Velvet didn't like strangers. "I understand. I'll call you back if anything else happens." She hung up after Coco's acknowledgment and returned Velvet's Scroll to the pocket it came from so she could check her own device. A message from Ruby awaited her the moment she got it open, so she decided to call her leader. "I'm fine," she began. "And I was right. My friend was out here. Glad I decided to check."

"Oh! Is she okay?"

"Uh, well…?" Blake frowned down at Velvet again. "She fainted." And she had started to shiver, too, likely from being so waterlogged that she was now lying in a literal puddle on the floor. She looked down at herself and found much the same problem where she sat. "Ugh, she's soaked and so am I. I should go look for some towels."

Ruby's next words came after what sounded like a great deal of hushed conversation with the rest of her team. "Where are you?"

Blake's feline ears flicked repeatedly to dislodge droplets of water clinging to their fur. "I'm pretty sure it's the lobby of dorm building six." Her ears twitched again, this time in response to a sudden pall as the rain outside began to weaken.

"Hang tight! Help is on the way!"

"Um, all right?" Blake ended the call, stood up, and walked away from Velvet in order to shake off what water she could. Then she took up a post near one of the front windows to wait for her reinforcements. To say she was surprised about who showed up a few minutes later was a slight understatement: here came Weiss, shielded by a huge white umbrella and carrying some sort of container under her left arm. She daintily stepped into the pitch-black lobby and closed the door just as the rain picked up behind her. "How did you end up out here?" Blake asked.

The constant flicker of lightning cast her shadow across Velvet as she set the box down and closed her umbrella. "Ruby is terrified of lightning, so she wouldn't come outside. Yang won't leave Ruby alone because she's nervous. It would be adorable if they weren't so annoying." She stooped to open her case. "Frankly, I'm grateful for the chance to get out. They're sistering too hard right now and it makes me ill."

" _Sistering too hard_. Never heard it put that way before."

"Yes, well." Weiss' attention shifted to the silhouette on the floor; Blake, noticing this, used the flashlight on her Scroll to light up Velvet's form. "Wait, I've seen her before." She carried the case over and knelt down by her left side. "Gods above, what happened to her face?" she gasped.

"I don't know, she's kind of reluctant to talk about it. Oh, and her name is Velvet." Blake watched her teammate pluck a narrow glass vial of red Dust, emblazoned with the Schnee Dust Company's logo, from her box. "No towels?"

"I have a better idea." Weiss unscrewed the cap and loaded the Dust into something out of sight in her other hand, which she displayed to Blake once finished. "My hair dryer! Which, fortunately, uses power cells and not electricity from the wall." She made a face up at one of the non-functional lights.

"Right. Let's dry her off first." Blake carefully lifted Velvet's head so Weiss could get to work on her copious hair. After a couple of minutes, however, she noticed just how fascinated the girl seemed with her bunny ears. "Um, I think they're dry, Weiss."

"I know," she mumbled, still examining one of them. "There aren't many Faunus in Atlas. You two are the first ones I've really seen up close."

Eyebrow raised, Blake moved as much of Velvet's sopping hair as she could into a more convenient drying position while balancing her Scroll in the other hand for light. "Seriously?" Weiss only nodded in response. "It _is_ the furthest Kingdom from Menagerie, I guess. And cold."

"Hmm." Weiss pressed on until she also found the strange marking on Velvet's neck and stopped. "What is this?"

"That mark? I don't know." She shined the light on it so Weiss could get a better view.

Weiss set the dryer aside and used both thumbs to stretch out the skin around it for further examination. "Strange, it looks like a—" No further words would come; her brain had already picked out the blocky structure and arrangement of the graphical code, combined it with the 24-digit numerical string located just below, and presented a comparison that turned her blood to stone. She removed her fingers and sat there, frozen, for several silent moments.

"Weiss?" Blake shined the light on her face and found open-mouthed, breathtaking, unexplained confusion waiting. "Weiss! What's the matter?"

Awful questions clawed at her mind while her voice remained stuck to the sandpaper masquerading as her tongue. "It's… it's not important," she finally replied with a lungful of exhaled air. "It's not important." She fumbled with the dryer and got back to work. "It's nothing."

Some of her emotions now belonged to an uncertain Blake as well. "This doesn't _feel_ like nothing, Weiss."

"It is. It's absolutely… nothing." Terrified curiosity sank its talons into Weiss' spine and stopped her cold again. Almost against her will, her right hand darted to the floor and picked up one of the empty vials. She could just barely see the barcode on its glass bottom in the shaky light provided by Blake's Scroll and flashes of lightning from outside. The similarity between that barcode and the example on Velvet's neck caused the startled girl to drop it, where it shattered on the floor next to her leg. "Absolutely nothing at all!" she squeaked, fumbling with the dryer she had discarded. "Should we try to undress her? She'll catch a cold wearing this wet thing."

Blake's arms were raised defensively until she saw Weiss fumble with the dryer one more time. "You need to tell me what's going on," she finally demanded.

Those words were barely audible over the full-scale war breaking out between Weiss' ears. _This couldn't be possible_. "I don't think I want to do that," she muttered, too distressed to lie. "We—we really should get this jumpsuit off—"

"Weiss!"

Her shoulders jumped with fright. After a lengthy, awkward silence broken only by the dull roar of thunder and rain outside, she offered Blake one of the full Dust vials. "Look at the bottom," she whispered.

She obliged, although for a second or two the barcode she found there didn't mean anything until a glance back at Velvet brought context. "This looks like—"

"Yes."

Blake's grip on the vial grew tighter with each second. " _Why_ does it look like—"

"I don't know." Weiss, hands firmly clasped in her lap, tried to make herself as tiny as possible. The storm above and around them did all the talking for the next few minutes as each girl tried fruitlessly to breathe themselves back into something even _resembling_ calm.

Velvet's clipped moan startled both girls into scrambling backwards. She managed to lift herself into a slumped-upright position, her rabbit ears the only part of her body capable of standing straight up. "Unnnnh…" she whined into her hands. "How did I end up—Blake!" She lifted her head and looked to the side — fortunately, the one where Blake sat — and blinked. "Wow. You really saved my butt. I thought I was gonna drown."

"You're… you're welcome," came her muted answer. Her eyes remained upon a silent Weiss.

"What are you looking at?" Velvet followed her gaze, saw Weiss, tried to inhale and scream simultaneously, then fell against Blake as she attempted to flee. She eventually rolled off, stumbled to her feet and hurled herself into the darkness, where she tripped again thanks to the friction of her wet jumpsuit and plunged to the floor. "Agh! Ow!"

"Velvet!" Blake's mind finally reconnected with her limbs and she walked over. "What's wrong? Why did you run away?"

Whatever coherent sentence Velvet planned to say deformed into a gasp and silence as she saw Weiss approach from behind. "I'm not going to hurt you," she offered awkwardly. Velvet continued to retreat with every step closer she took. "What is going on here?" she asked Blake.

"She… she doesn't like people." Blake knelt down in front of Velvet to grab her attention. "Velvet, it's okay. Weiss is my teammate."

"B-buhhhhhh," was all that came out. Velvet nailed her terrified eyes to Weiss, whole body tense as if expecting an imminent attack.

In an effort to de-escalate the tension, Weiss showed her both hands. "Look. See? Empty. I'm not going to hurt you."

Blake sat down next to Velvet and tried to calm her. "It's all right. She came here to help me help you. That's all." Every motion Weiss made caused the rabbit Faunus to tense up. "Maybe you should give her some space."

Weiss' first instinct was to snap. "But I haven't done anything!" Velvet's squeak of fear caused instantaneous, chest-searing regret. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice, I—" she added apologetically. As requested, she took a few steps backwards and clasped her shaking hands together.

"Velvet." Blake seized her gently by both shoulders. "Breathe." That act proved impossible for the rabbit Faunus to perform with any sort of regularity. "Just look at me for a second. In. Out. You can do it." She performed breaths to calm herself down — and also so Velvet could have something to mimic. "In. Out."

"Hhhh… hhh?" she murmured. Eventually, her breathing fell into sync with Blake's — as she began to calm down, so did Weiss. "She… she's your friend?"

Blake copied the tone and speaking pace of the most calming influence she knew: her mother. Her words flowed like molasses through the dark. "Well, yes. What scared you?"

"She—" Velvet's brown eyes were glassed over by memories too painful to have any chance of escaping as words. They emerged instead as unhappy whines.

Weiss had what she thought was a good idea — give the terrified girl something else to think about instead of whatever fear caused her panic, something which usually worked for her own unease. Unfortunately, the only subject change she could grasp was the worst possible option. "We saw the mark. On your neck," she stated calmly. "What is it?"

Blake shot a glance back toward her. "Weiss, I don't think this is the time."

What Velvet said next stunned them both. "I thought you already knew." Their shock — Weiss' especially — indicated otherwise and left her somewhat perplexed.

"Why would _I_ know?!" she finally shot back.

"I, uh, well…" Keen not to get Blake — and to her own surprise, Weiss as well — in more trouble by spilling any beans, a shaky Velvet got to her feet again in preparation to bolt outside despite the continuing storm that would await her if she made it. "Never mind! I should probably get back to—my dorm, I guess."

"What? No, Velvet, at least wait for the storm to pass." Blake rose and moved over to try and stop her from running back into the maelstrom, but the front door swung open and stopped everyone in their tracks. The two Faunus knew who it was immediately, but Weiss had to wait for Blake to shine a light on the arrival before she could see anything beyond a tall silhouette.

It was Coco, clad in a coffee-colored, hooded raincoat that obscured her frame from the neck down. She dropped the hood and stared at them. "Hey, Velvet. Hey, Blake." Weiss received no greeting whatsoever, a fact which left her somewhat dumbstruck.

And insulted, if the tone of her voice was any indication. "Oh, you're the sophomore from the other morn—"

"Yeah." Coco waved her best friend over.

Velvet immediately broke away from the two girls and put the much taller young woman between herself and them. "I thought you were down by the south gate?" she mumbled.

"Circumstances changed," she mumbled back.

Rabbit ears flicking anxiously, Velvet glanced at Weiss and grabbed Coco's drenched coat sleeve. Her next words were barely a whisper. "They saw it."

Blake heard it anyway; her immediate instinct was to come clean. Maybe it would lead to an explanation. "Yes, we did," she confirmed, flinching slightly when another close lightning strike brought window-rattling thunder.

Coco regarded both of them with glazed eyes and a stony face. As much as she wanted to drop the hammer on Weiss Schnee right here, right now — a feat she could accomplish in a few sentences — the fact that she shared her confused, unnerved expression with Blake gave her pause. Like Velvet a few moments previous, she too assumed the rich girl knew, yet her face said the opposite. She glanced down as Velvet halfway climbed her side to issue another whisper.

"I don't think she knows," was her testament, so quiet that it almost found itself swallowed by the rain.

For Coco, that was confirmation enough. "Yeah, well, it's nothing important," she finally stated.

Weiss couldn't let it go. "But—!" she snapped. Coco raised her hand and quelled whatever else she had to say.

"Listen, do I look worried about it?" She motioned toward the door and turned her back on them, only to dryly recite some rules afterward. "Shoo. Back to your dorm. Policy is for all students to remain in their prescribed areas during a mains outage. So get lost."

Blake was just as reluctant as Weiss to leave, although she had additional reasons. "Are you… Velvet?"

"I'm fine!" she squeaked, still glued to Coco's side like a frightened child. "Sorry about the panic!"

"But I…" Exhausted from agitation, Weiss could no longer maintain such a tight grip on her fearful curiosity and relented at last. "All right. Fine. I'll come back in the morning for my things."

"And I guess I'll look for my umbrella. The wind blew it away." Blake slowly led her toward the door. She tried to add a bit of levity to the atmosphere. "Can I borrow yours?"

Weiss moved over to snatch her giant white umbrella off of the floor. " _May_ … and I'm not so much of a jerk that I'd make you walk in the rain unprotected."

Coco and Velvet watched them depart into the tempest again — Weiss somehow maintained enough dignity to shut the door behind them despite the awful conditions — and the latter finally unlatched her death grip on the former. "I can't believe you let her go. You could have—"

"I wanted to, but…" She feigned an examination of her sunglasses before storing them in their protective case, then slipping the case into a pocket. "How could she _not_ know? I'm curious now. Unless she was faking it."

"Coco, I know what acting looks like. Nothing about that was fake." Velvet grumbled down at her sticky, drenched jumpsuit and sighed. "Gross."

The sight of Velvet trying to peel the fabric off of her skin gave Coco a few good chuckles. "I'll stick you under my raincoat so we can go back to our room. They're not going to send me back out." Her face darkened slightly. "But I bet I'm gonna have a loooooong talk with Glynda in the morning."

* * *

Amber would have enjoyed a blanket of stars above were it not for the copious smoke belched out by the burning corpse of the desert village around her. She glided through the chaos on deliberate steps, staff in one hand, eyeing the carnage for stragglers she may have missed. On this front she enjoyed the unwitting help of the Grimm — in particular a species that resembled grotesquely mutated armadillos whose armor plates bore fat white studs of chitinous material. The juveniles tore through the scene like bullets, diving into houses even if they were on fire to feast on the suffering victims trapped within them. Those stupid enough to fall upon her instead were dismissed into eldritch vapor by the wind magic she commanded with quiet snaps of her fingers.

She'd been at this for about half an hour; the smell of burnt and burning flesh was beginning to make her sick. One terrific sweep of her free hand sent a blade of air out ahead of her path, catching and dragging columns of acrid smoke with it. This gave her a bit of breathing room. Without the roar of fire, however, the groaning of the wounded reached her ears instead. "I'm slipping," she grumbled at herself, eyes hidden by her bloody fingers. She dropped that hand to examine her handiwork one more time. Her sight would land on limbs jutting out of the rubble — legs, arms, sometimes just a barely-noticeable hand. Some were smaller than most. A few were utterly tiny. On these her distant gaze remained for longer than the others.

"Amber!"

Her head snapped around. Through the heat shimmer and smoke came Raven, forehead glittering with sweat. She didn't speak again until Amber walked over to meet her. "I think you're done here. Let the Razorbacks finish up."

The only gleam in Amber's eyes came from the fire that surrounded them. "Why are there so many kids out here, Raven? Why are there _always_ kids?"

"Gotta replace losses to the Grimm somehow." She gently guided Amber toward the outskirts of the village with a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Time to decompress."

A brief chorus of screams — Grimm and human — chased them out, but before long they were back in the desert, cloaked in silence. Hordes of the beasts flashed past them toward the village. As they walked, Raven did the honors of executing any that came their way with immense emissions of fire magic from her right hand. Now that she had the ability to think again, Amber regarded her sister's presence with a tinge of suspicion. "You must not be mad anymore, then, if you're out here checking on me?" she asked, unsteadily pulling a tan-wrapped cigarette from a pouch on her belt. When she moved to place it in her lips and light it, however, Raven shook her head. "What? Why not?

Her blank face yielded to a smirk. "Those things are bad for you, you know." Silence lingered for about ten seconds before she regarded Amber with a more serious look. "The old woman wants to talk to you... and give you a chance to see Lapis. I'd hold off lighting up for now. She has enough trouble breathing as it is."

"Oh!" Amber stopped dead in her tracks. The latter bit of news was fantastic — as evidenced by her smile — but her eyes glittered with nervousness. "I… I haven't been to her house in a while."

"It's fine. I'm going with you." Raven shifted her weight to one hip and grinned at the crimson splatters on Amber's clothes. "You might want to clean up first."

"Wait, she wants us _now_?" She blinked at the nod and stepped away, tucking her unlit cigarette safely back into storage. "Just a second."

Raven observed idly as she disappeared into a bubbling geyser of opaque water which erupted from the sand at her feet. It obscured her for about two or three minutes, emitting a far more pleasant noise than those which still came from the dying village they'd left behind, then dropped away as abruptly as it had appeared. It left a dripping wet Amber behind, scrubbed clean of blood stains. Everything on her person that could glittered in the moonlight. "Could you dry me?" she asked. "You're better at fire than I am."

"If you insist." Raven expelled a much lower-intensity flame toward her sister; its reddish tongues curled around an unseen, roughly spherical barrier as Amber's eyes slid closed in concentration. "I'm not gonna do this for long," she warned.

"Hold on, hold on." Amber performed a rather strange-looking dance as she tried to dry out as much of herself as she could. "I think that's good enough," she added at length. "How are we making the trip?"

"I was hoping I've got enough left in me to cut a portal. If not, we may have to fly to the gate." Raven spun the rotary mechanism in her sword sheath back to red, after which she drew her ruddy saber and walked toward the flattest available patch of sand within easy reach. "All right. Catch me if I faint."

"I'd rather you didn't." Amber watched her twirl and cleave the air, tearing a ragged — but highly unstable — crimson swirl into it. "You good?"

Unlike the last portal, Raven had to hold her form and glare at the hole, pumping her own Aura into it to keep it open until the wobbly gash rotated into a more stable oval shape. Both of her hands shook fiercely. "Save your concern for the other side, please, my arms are going numb."

After an apologetic squeak, Amber daintily pranced through the portal and vanished. Raven followed her, almost falling through the gap. She stumbled across the ground on the other side as the portal closed — it was her sister's intervention that kept her from ending up on her hands and knees. "I think you missed," she teased, indicating the dark stone mansion in the distance.

" _You_ try ripping a hole between dimensions, then," Raven answered between gasps for air. Once she managed to stand upright, the two women set off through the hellscape which sat between them and their destination.

The only sound for miles came from their boots, which crunched noisily with each step; it seemed as though the wind didn't exist here. Whatever the ground was made of, it resembled crushed, red rock, whose jagged facets caught the light of the broken Moon above — a body whose phase and position matched what they saw in the desert sky above Vacuo. While it was the same, the location, and even brightness, of stars in the sky around it were not — the view would have been unrecognizable to any man or machine which depended on stars for navigation across Remnant. Hazy black clouds existed as well, starkly apparent against the wine-colored sky, so vast that their full sizes were impossible to determine. Every one of them had at least one tendril that dove toward the ground. As the two women came out from behind one of the countless titanic outcroppings of purple crystal that dotted the soil, they saw the termination of one of these black, vaporous snakes: a pool of equally dark liquid.

Raven paused at the edge of this inky puddle to catch her breath again. "I'm such a moron. This is twice in a week I've cut a tunnel to get here. I'm surprised my Aura didn't break."

"You became unbreakable when you accepted our mantle," Amber remarked, her eyes on the purple mansion ahead. Ripples in the surface of the black pool drew her attention; as she watched, a squirming black _thing_ breached the surface and crawled its way toward dry land. It wasn't a creature so much as an object, shaped like the larva of a gigantic insect. A white marking occupied the head end — while this vaguely resembled a Grimm mask, and even had a small yellow spot at its center, it wasn't a physical structure, but simply a different skin color than the rest of its body. It wiggled onto Amber's left boot and stayed there until she picked it up. "I would almost call these things cute if I didn't know what they turn into," she said. While the squishy mass writhed a little more frantically in her grasp, it was absolutely harmless. It lacked a mouth, much less spikes, claws or teeth.

"Seems like that one needs to cook a little longer." Raven watched her gently set it back into the pool. "Come on. I'm think I'm all right."

They pressed on through the crimson plain, Amber's anticipation and anxiety growing with every step. At last, they found themselves in visual range of the base of her Tyrian purple stronghold. There were others here; people they could see wandering around inside through the structure's grand windows — there was even a smartly-dressed individual who acted as a doorman, letting others in and out through a set of ornate, granite-like doors. The mansion itself was four stories high, designed in a way which emphasized external flying buttresses tipped with spires — an architectural style which no longer existed on Remnant — and cut from the same giant crystals which jutted out from the landscape around it. The whole thing was topped off with an ink-black roof.

The doorman waved pleasantly as the two drew closer still. "Lady Branwen, back so soon?" he joked, mustache twitching as he chuckled. "And Lady Grace! It's been too long." He smoothly opened the doors for them. "The Aspect awaits your presence in the west conference hall."

"Thank you," Amber replied, though Raven simply waved and said nothing as they entered. "I was hoping I could see Lapis first…" she muttered a few moments later.

"Come on, let the old woman have her fun." Raven lit the way with her Scroll — the dim torches set periodically into the walls provided little contrast to the purple-on-purple interior, as did the dim light that entered through the windows. "Damn, why is it always so stuffy in here?" she complained. To combat the stale air, she uncorked a little ice magic in puffs around both herself and her sister.

Amber fanned herself and sighed. "Perhaps we should sneak in some fans the next time we come."

They followed the corridor, past innumerable doors in one wall and an equal amount of windows in the other, until it turned left into the interior of the structure. There was only one entrance to their right, to which no door was attached. Here they stopped to look inside. There she sat, at the far end of a long, highly polished obsidian table, occupying one of eight matching chairs, a flickering silhouette in the light of several torches set into the curved wall around and behind her. Her form represented the unity of Grimm and man; chalk-white complexion and hair matched the former, as did the black vein markings that slithered through every inch of her exposed skin. Her eyes were polished void, disturbed only by deep red irises. Her colorless hair was slicked back and arranged into a voluminous bun at the back of her skull, run through with several large sticks that appeared to be ivory wrapped in black ribbon. A high-collared black dress with a narrow vertical slit between her breasts, plus a matching sheer cape that fell to her hips, completed the affair. "Raven. Amber," she greeted warmly, standing up and walking over to receive them.

And she wanted a hug. Raven obliged her first with a mocking roll of her eyes. "Gods above, Salem, you _just_ saw me a few days ago," she joked, briefly wrapping her arms around the frigid body of her mistress.

"Trust me when I tell you that some habits never die." Amber got a much longer embrace and a broad smile. "You're looking well. How is Eastern Sanus treating you?"

"I guess I can't really complain?" They all walked together back toward the end of the table where she had been seated to sit once again — Amber at her left side, Raven at her right. "Raven said you wanted to see me."

"I do, yes, and unfortunately some of it does pertain to our tradecraft." Salem flicked her wrist at the ceiling above; the purple material yielded to her unseen command like a living thing, opening a gap all the way through the upper floors of the mansion as well as its roof to let in more light from the sky. "That's a little better." She clasped her hands on the table and allowed an easy smile to rest on her face. "This is as good a time as ever to get an update from Ozma's side of the world, I suppose. Anything interesting?"

Amber relaxed as much as she could in the unyielding stone seat and crossed her legs. "The overall picture is pretty much as we expected. Village management is going on as usual — Olivine's at Beacon now to help me handle that end of it. We've kept Argus' expansion in check, as you requested. Kingdom populations are increasing at a stable rate. Our biggest problem outside of Mistral is the White Fang, but Ozpin believes a deployment of Raven, Olivine and myself will solve it if Atlas' Regular Army doesn't do it for us. And speaking of Atlas, well…"

Salem lifted one hand slightly to cut her off. "I've heard this story from Raven." The smile on her face began to fade. "The northern Kingdom is building itself into a fortress. A stubborn thorn in our sides. I believe I know something of the fruits of their labor, if not the exact details of the orchard they've planted. His children on Solitas are becoming _quite_ feral; they wipe the glaciers clean of what few villages exist and are still left hungry. The flow of exiles has waned to a trickle — and something appears to be suppressing the emotional swings of the Atlesian population in general. Their peaks and valleys are lately more like rolling hills. Even His oldest creations struggle to gauge the difference."

While Amber knew about the lack of exiles being expelled from Atlas, everything else was a new perspective on the issue. "I guess that explains why the Grimm have been so savage around Vale lately… they're making up the difference. Oh, well. Ozpin is already working to address that issue from a window-dressing standpoint." After a sigh, she hunched over slightly in thought. "Didn't Jacques Schnee make a deal with James Ironwood some time ago for some sort of testing on his forced labor population?"

Raven, who had mostly checked out of the conversation, stopped staring into the red sky and rejoined it. "One of Ozpin's ideas, yeah. Drug testing on the Faunus to keep their camps alive so we could clear out villages in Northern Anima 'cause the Grimm were too busy feasting on slaves." Her eyes narrowed a bit. "That was the cost of doing business then. I imagine it was Schnee's way of getting Ironwood to turn a blind eye, too — throw the General a bone to keep the SDC skeletons safely locked up in their gilded closet."

A thoughtful Salem leaned back in her chair, eyes locked onto the middle distance. "Is it possible that James Ironwood has convinced someone to drug the entire Atlesian population? Has enough time passed for him to get so far?"

Amber shrugged at this. "Atlesian military technology is fifty years ahead of any other Kingdom at this point. I think it's within their capability, but... I don't know. Seems like something we'd hear about from the Royal Court."

"Indeed. I knew we should have flattened that damn settlement the moment Lady Tanager left our control. Then again, her discovery did make _some_ things easier." Salem glanced at Raven before she continued. "Raven tells me there is some sort of military project compartmentalized so tightly that not even she can approach it. And given her previous dealings with Ironwood, that truly is saying something. My children can live with the dearth of emotion from Atlas — for now. In fact, if deployed carefully, a mood stabilizer could bring us even closer to our goal. And in the meanwhile, there are plenty of settlements out in the desert which need dying." Here her optimism ran out, as evidenced by the mild glower she now assumed. "But to have a project classified more strictly than a drug which could eventually affect the _entire_ human population? This troubles me."

Again, Amber could only shrug. "Same, but we're at as much of a loss as Raven is. Externally, Ironwood is holding up his end of the bargain as far as the Academy system goes. Internally… we have no idea what he's doing."

"Hm." Salem rose from her seat to pace and think. "I realize that Ozma has always fancied himself a scalpel, but perhaps the situation with Atlas is a nail desperately in search of a hammer. We can afford to wait and see, but let him know my misgivings."

"Yes, ma'am," Amber assured her with a nod.

"And let him know that our failsafe is completely secure," she added, smiling at Raven. "Young Cinder is quite good at carrying out orders." No look toward the silent Amber was necessary; Salem could feel the shift in her demeanor. "Give her time, Amber. I will guide her down the right path."

"Yes, ma'am," she repeated, much less enthusiastically this go around. Then she shared an awkward look with Raven. "Ah, there is one other thing I think you might want to know while I'm here."

"Please," Salem urged her on the way back to her seat. "Your concerns are always of interest to me, you know that."

"Well…" Amber decided the picture wasn't worth showing until she'd gotten the story out first. "Olivine and I were out in the Beacon Leyline area the other day, investigating a possible holy magic discharge — you remember Summer Rose? It's her daughter. She has access to her power, at least in a subconscious capacity."

Salem's brow furrowed subtly. "Ah, yes. The Roses are, as ever, weeds in my garden." She found the expression on Amber's face to be extremely curious. "But she isn't the problem?"

"No, ma'am. We noticed something else. Depleted Dust residue — Ash — so finely burned that we could only feel its presence, not see it."

Her obsidian eyes went back and forth between the two Maidens several times. "That is completely impossible." Neither said anything to qualify the situation. "I assume Ozma has eyes on the problem?"

"Yes. This man is our most likely candidate," Amber stated. She displayed Opher's picture to Salem on her Scroll. The Aspect took the device to study his face, a move that surprised both women to some degree. "Ah… Miss Salem?"

"Maybe she knows his ancestors," Raven offered quietly. "If this is your guy, he must descend from a bloodline somewhere, like the Laochra Airgid."

A hundred thousand years of knowledge coursed through Salem's umbral brain, but she could attach none of it to his face with any degree of certainty. "Hm. Well, it would be highly inconvenient if we had to kill every green-eyed child on Remnant henceforth. If Ozma wants any of my assets to fully ascertain the situation, he is granted them. Keep me informed."

"As you wish." Amber took her Scroll and put it away. "So, I guess that's all?" she added anxiously.

"I won't keep you any longer. I know you're anxious to see…" Salem trailed off upon recognizing a new presence in the doorway. It put a wry grin on her pallid face. "...a young lady who absolutely refuses to stay in bed, as usual."

In shuffled a woman with olive skin and dusky gray hair that fell neatly to her shoulders. Her body and head were bowed by a malady which also stole her right to breathe easily — each exhalation was a painful, audible affair — and forced her to bear most of her weight with an ornate stone cane. The frail woman's clothing consisted of a simple, ankle-length dress, the color of the sea on a clear day, and slippers which matched. Amber leaped from her chair and rushed over to meet her. "Lapis!" she gasped. "You're…" She intended a positive conclusion to her sentence, but the sight of Lapis' gaunt face and glassy blue eyes killed that possibility. Despite it all, she still had a smile which her autumnal sister tried desperately to match.

"Well, well, look who the cat dragged in. Business trip?" Lapis said, her voice hardly more intense than a sigh. She allowed Amber to help her walk over to one of the chairs — Salem gave hers up without urging and assisted in getting the broken Maiden into it safely. "Sure feels… serious in here."

"Doesn't it?" Salem quipped. "My daughters never visit me just to visit me. Perhaps I should change the décor."

"Maybe you should let the sun in." Lapis' thin frame draped itself over the seat more so than she sat in it like Raven or Amber. Air struggled to find its way into her lungs. "I miss the sun."

"I know."

Those words made the dark queen appear just a little more fragile to Raven's eyes; noticing her expression, she nodded down at the tribe leader and both took their leave so Amber could catch up with Lapis in peace. As soon as they were safely out of earshot, Raven decided to put a voice to their feelings. "This sucks."

"Yes. She's gotten so bad that she can't even breathe Remnant's air any longer." Salem braced herself on one of the walls and sighed. "This place is her prison now, yet the only thing that keeps her alive."

"What if you took her to Lux Impulsum?"

"There's simply no way she would survive the trip, even if all of her sisters escorted her there." The ability for her to shed actual tears was long, long gone, but Salem wiped at her eyes with one hand all the same. "You're all so fragile. I never wanted this for Lapis. I never wanted this for Chalcedony. I've seen our daughters wither away a hundred times and it never hurts any less." She clenched her other hand into an angry fist. "I'm so tired."

Raven looked away out of respect, her expression shadowed by partially-real sympathy. "I can only imagine."

Salem continued to dry non-existent tears. "I want it to end. I want them to come home and conclude this damned affair at last." Her face hardened with rage backed by millennia of suffering. "And I will do _anything_ to ensure that outcome takes place."


	10. White Rabbit

Sunrise washed over Beacon's drenched campus the next morning, casting its glow on the faces of two girls who'd gotten absolutely zero sleep during the night, even after the storm passed. Weiss and Blake stared at each other across the gulf between their bunks with tight-lipped frowns as the sisters snored away above them.

"This is pointless," Blake mumbled. "I don't even know why we tried to sleep."

"Agreed." Weiss carefully threw her blankets aside and sat up in bed. "I should have taken one of whatever Yang gave to Ruby to knock her out."

"Hrrnn." Blake slipped out of bed with all the stealth one would expect from a girl with feline features. "I need some air anyway. And we still need to talk."

How Weiss would frame this conversation in a way that wouldn't make anything worse was beyond her at the moment, but to swallow her tribulations and ignore them with another field trial so near could mean disaster for more than just herself. She had to make an effort, at least. "Fair enough. If we're quiet, we can leave them in here and go get our things from building six."

"All right. Let's go."

Both girls whipped themselves into halfway-decent shape at a snail's pace, more focused on being sneaky than trying to look nice — Weiss seemed content with brushing down her snowy locks and putting on a fresh copy of her usual outfit, while Blake spent a little more time getting dressed after smoothing her hair down with water just to tame the humidity-induced frizz. They departed the room like ghosts, exhaled deeply in the hallway after they closed the door behind them, and found themselves with another obstacle: a yawning Pyrrha, dressed in a red tank top and dark green sweatpants, who had just exited her team's room next door. Her red locks were a disaster; she hadn't even tied them back into her usual ponytail. "Oh, good morning," she said to them. "You're awake early."

"We didn't sleep very well." Weiss took the chance to fiddle a little more with her own hair. "And I think Ruby's snoring problem might be a genetic trait." All three girls listened to the muffled tones of Xiao Long and Rose snoozing through the wall.

"Goodness me." Pyrrha noted their vaguely agitated postures and tactfully decided to get out of their way. "It looks like you've got somewhere to be, so I won't keep you. I'd better get back in there before—" A tremendous yawn reached their ears. "Nora wakes up. Oh dear. Excuse me!"

They watched her skitter out of sight. "Let's book it," Blake muttered.

Weiss cocked an eyebrow and fell in behind her as she walked off. "Is… is that a reading pun?"

"Is my hair blonde?"

"Point taken."

Soupy morning air had them in its clutches as soon as they emerged outside. Water drying from the stone pavement added so much moisture to the atmosphere that each girl felt like they were drinking air instead of breathing it. There wasn't another person in sight despite the clear morning skies above — likely thanks to weekend laziness. "I have no idea where I should even _start_ looking for my stupid umbrella," Blake lamented as they walked toward Beacon Tower.

Weiss was thankful for her willingness to stall, but now seemed like a good time to rip the bandage off. "The company uses a patented two-dimensional matrix code system to mark its SKUs."

"The company… your family's company?" Blake got a nod in the affirmative, frowned, then asked her next question. "What's an SKU?"

She suddenly regretted not bringing her rapier; the comfort derived from having it on her hip was sorely missed at the moment. "Stock Keeping Unit. It's how we track product as it moves around the SDC network."

"Okay." Her face drew tight again. "So why was it on Velvet's neck?"

Their expressions matched now. "I have no answer for that," she replied, the gods' honest truth. "It's meant for property. If it was a tattoo, I might have said it was the personal style choice of a former employee, but… not a burn scar."

"Like branding cattle." Blake's hands balled up into fists. "Velvet isn't cattle. Do you buy what Coco said?"

"About it being nothing important?" She thought on this while flicking her ponytail back over her shoulder. "Like hell I do." Something jutting out of a nearby shrub caught her eye. "Also, is that an umbrella handle?"

"Where?" Blake looked toward where Weiss pointed, then moved to investigate. Sure enough, she pulled her amazingly intact black umbrella from the bush a few moments later. "Wow. I can't believe it survived."

"At least there's a little good news." Those happy feelings lasted all of three seconds when Blake returned to her side. "Surely the administration knows about this, right? They wouldn't let Velvet be here if she was an emotional danger."

Blake's lips pursed slightly as she shook water from her canopy, then tucked it under her right arm. "That's what I thought the night I met her. She keeps her facial scars covered. Wouldn't say anything when I asked about them. Someone has to know what's going on — beyond Coco, I mean — and they must be okay with it." Her yellow eyes went to Weiss. "Are you _sure_ that marking is like the ones you talked about?"

"A hundred percent," was her instant answer. Of course she was certain; Weiss inhaled knowledge about the family business whenever she could in preparation to take command of it once she'd detached — forcibly or otherwise — that mustached leech from its soul. Just thinking about him filled her mouth with bile. "No doubt in my mind. I just don't know _why_ it would be—"

 _Unless_. Doubt brought her to a slow stop.

"What?" Blake asked when she noticed.

Her voice failed as she decided to entertain a few ifs, mostly centered on who would be so mentally unstable that they would brand another sentient being — and how such a person would have access to the code patterns in the first place. It then struck her that she was asking the wrong questions when another popped into her brain: who in the hell would have made, and have the authority to make, a _literal branding iron_ out of the company's matrix code system? Trying to answer this made Weiss' heart skip quite a few beats.

"Um… Weiss?" Blake asked again, gently, aware of the considerable distress which now existed on her friend's face. "What's up?"

The situation precluded Weiss from blowing off the Faunus as she did Ruby whenever her leader asked that question. "I just… I just had a thought," she replied at length.

Blake guessed at the true meaning of those words. "And it's not good, is it?" Weiss nodded once; fortunately, they had arrived at their destination anyway. She waved her toward the door. "Let's talk about it in there, then."

She agreed instantly; anything to make her feel less exposed. "Okay."

They entered building six's lobby and found it just as empty as the campus outside. Weiss' case and hair dryer had been neatly set aside underneath one of the windows — any trace of the puddles and broken glass from last night was completely gone. The would-be heiress uncorked her full anxiety not ten seconds later. "I can't figure out who would make a branding iron with the company's SKU codes on it. I can't figure out who would have the _authority_ to do it. That technology is strictly overseen, Blake. The system gives us a tremendous advantage in shipping and stocking. Those codes are what makes tracking our cargo possible."

Her frantic tone left Blake a little too stunned to speak at first. "Who controls the codes?"

Weiss ran her brain ragged for an exact answer. "I'm not—I'm not _precisely_ sure."

Not interested in agitating her any further, Blake said gently, "Just take a guess."

"Ah, well…" Her eyes darted around in thought. It would have to be someone in the executive suite, or at least close to it; perhaps even at the continental branch level. Those people generally took their orders directly from her father. She struggled to catch her suddenly rapid breath as implications began to crush her lungs. Those thoughts leaked out, uncontrolled, as she lost what was left of her composure. "Blake, you have to believe me. My family would never condone—she would _never_ let them do something th-this—"

"Slow down, Weiss, I'm not blaming anyone for anything." Blake walked over and grasped her by the shoulders, much as she did to calm Velvet a few hours earlier. "Just tell me what you have to tell me."

Weiss found herself almost nose-to-nose, too frazzled to move backward. "The…" At last she managed to remember how breathing worked. "Code security is maintained by each continental branch of the company. So, the Vale headquarters, the Mistral headquarters, and the Vacuo headquarters, with final control that comes from Atlas, of course." Blake only nodded for her to continue. "I find the likelihood that someone might have stolen them to be highly remote. If this was an authorized usage of the matrix codes…" She trailed off, unable to conclude her sentence, and looked away.

Blake's face darkened as she processed the implications. "What are you saying?" She got distracted by the sight of several teachers walking by outside, headed for Beacon Tower, though none of them seemed to acknowledge the two girls. "Weiss?"

Her terror had gone internal again. _Winter would have fought such a thing_. Except her sister had been disowned and rather forcibly ejected from the Schnee mansion. _Mother would never allow it._ Assuming she still maintained any power over business decisions, a question Weiss couldn't answer. No, her father would never, ever stoop so low, despite everything he'd done.

Would he?

The very fact that this question even existed in her mind was too much of an answer. And with it came more questions. If taken at face value — or at least if she took these conclusions as true for the sake of argument — Weiss wondered if this hypothetical provided a motive for recent events at home. Perhaps it was why Winter had been removed from the family; why her mother seemed to lack so much power over the business; why he let _her_ leave Atlas and go to Beacon — so he wouldn't need to disown her personally. Distance could do it for him. All the while, she had no vocal answers for an increasingly agitated Blake.

"Weiss, please, say something!" she begged.

"There is absolutely no way my family would condone company-sanctioned physical harm under any circumstances," was the answer she finally gave — delivered with precision and grace that would have made the company's press department proud. Her chest tightened with unease.

It wasn't the response she sought; her brow furrowed as she recalled the rabbit Faunus' words from last night. "She thought you knew." Blake released her shoulders and stepped backward. "Would your parents have final approval over the usage of those codes, Weiss?" No response. "Answer me!"

A subtle click from the door told them too late that they were no longer alone. Glynda Goodwitch stepped quietly away from the portal she had just closed and approached them as they turned to look. "I suppose it was only a matter of time," she stated evenly, hands clasped behind her back. "You're both far too intelligent not to have put the pieces together."

Weiss managed to reply first. "H-how l-long have you been standing there?" she stammered.

"Long enough." Glynda regarded their unhappy faces with no expression of her own. "Miss Adel informed me about last night. I planned to address it after our emergency staff meeting, but…"

"What's going on?" Blake demanded, her fists clenched. "What happened to Velvet?"

"I am not in a position to divulge Miss Scarlatina's past history." She caught Blake open-mouthed before the Faunus could fire back and silenced her with an iron gaze. "Let me finish." Neither girl felt spry enough to try and challenge her again, so she continued. "First, were it to become public, we would have a situation on our hands to say the least."

"Gods help me," Weiss gasped, ready to faint dead away upon hearing a non-confirmation confirmation of her new worst fear. "This can't be happening."

To her surprise, however, Glynda placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her steady. "And second, it would be an uproar over a situation which is already over. How do you think Miss Scarlatina ended up here in the first place? In fact, the responsible party has long since been punished. Yes, they worked for the Schnee Dust Company. Emphasis on _worked_."

This abrupt shift into the past-tense left both girls slightly befuddled. "Wait… everything's been taken care of, then?" Blake asked, feline ears flicking.

Glynda pushed her glasses back up her nose after the nod dislodged them. "Certainly. Authorities in Mistral sought a place for Velvet after the investigation was concluded. We volunteered, which is how she ended up here. As for what happened to the offender, well… needless to say, I've heard the punishments were _harsh_." A pallid Weiss caught her eye. "You look a little pale, Miss Schnee, are you all right?"

"Do I?" she replied, deflating almost visibly as she began to release some of her tension. "I think I'm okay. Those scars on her face… do they have something to do with it too?"

"I'm afraid so." Glynda attempted a smile, though her much taller frame blunted its intended calming effect. "I'm glad to see you both so concerned for her well-being. As you might guess, she doesn't have many friends."

"No wonder she's so skittish," Blake surmised quietly. "I can't imagine what she must have gone through."

Weiss, off to the side and thinking hard, couldn't recall her father having to deal with anyone from Mistral's government, nor any instance of such officials visiting the Schnee mansion to question him — and he certainly would have known about something this ugly. After all, the company's image seemed to be his highest priority. Perhaps she'd just assumed the worst possible outcome based on her hatred of him; clearly, the bad actor was lower down and apparently had been dealt with. Her cheeks tinged slightly red. "It's so disturbing. Who would do this to another person?"

"Nobody worth knowing — or remembering." Glynda's intimidating posture seemed to soften a little. "Unfortunately, we have to keep it quiet. Not only for the public's sake — look at how emotional it made you two — but for Velvet's as well. So she won't keep reliving what happened."

"Yeah. I get it." Blake tried to smooth down her wavy locks with a frown. "I can't believe someone would hurt Velvet like that. She seems so nice."

"That makes three of us, I'm sure." Glynda shot a look out the window as her smile departed. "I'm afraid I must be on my way. If you have any other concerns about this, I'd ask you to address them with me. Otherwise… just relax. You have enough to worry about as it is."

"Yes, ma'am," Weiss agreed quietly. "I hope whoever did this ended up in the woods somewhere. Revolting." She moved over to her case and picked it up.

"Yeah." Blake opened the door for her. "Thank you, Miss Goodwitch. Sorry about the fuss. We were just worried."

Glynda adjusted her glasses again with a smile. "I wouldn't scold you for caring about another person's well-being. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. You've got quite a week coming up." She watched them depart, then head back to their dorms through the front windows. Once they were out of sight, she produced her Scroll and placed a call. "Have the CCT manager meet me on the Tower steps," she said coolly, then hung up and proceeded outside to continue her journey to the building in question.

Sure enough, a mousy brunette in a gray skirt suit with a bright orange necktie awaited her arrival. Like Glynda, she also wore glasses, but these were large and round. As was the case with most of the other women that worked here, Glynda towered over her. The manager's words came out quick and nervous. "If this is about the signal integrity errors we keep getting, then I don't know what to tell you—"

Glynda silenced her with a wave. "No, Garnet, it isn't."

Those red eyes got a little wider as she followed the tall blonde into the tower lobby. It was almost empty; a few of the teachers were still waiting for elevator access for the trip up to Professor Ozpin's office, the location of the meeting Glynda mentioned to Blake and Weiss. "Okay, then… what?"

The blonde eyed her staff to see how much attention they directed her way; since they all seemed to be lost in their own little conversations, she felt comfortable enough to guide Garnet toward the other side of the lobby and issue a mumbled command: "I need the White Rabbit protocol executed on Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna's Scroll communications until further notice."

* * *

Afternoon saw Indigo Stahl on her usual stool at Schwarze's wooden bar as a late lunch of breaded game bird and vegetables cooked away on the stove behind her. She was the only customer in the pub at the moment. "I can't believe you opened the shop on Dimanch, _again_ , you utter workaholic," the Atlesian scolded.

"That's rich, coming from you," Indigo retorted, motioning around.

"I was using today to clean up for the start of the week!"

"And I was using today to rearrange my inventory." Indigo sipped at a small glass of bourbon on the rocks. "Hey, I gave the new guy the day off. That's something, right?"

Schwarze folded her arms and glared. "When are you going to give _you_ a day off?"

She flicked a hand at this show of concern and stared into her glass instead. "Bleh."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't work yourself into an early grave. You're just about the only friend I have left," she muttered, turning up the intensity of her pout to eleven.

It moved Indigo nary an inch. She sipped at her bourbon again. "You tell me that every time I do something you find disagreeable. Or annoying. Schwarze, there's no way I'm getting off this mortal coil anytime soon. The gods aren't done punishing me yet."

"Oh, hush." Schwarze turned around to check on the food. "Has he spoken to any of the therapists whose numbers you gave him?"

Indigo's expression soured. "I dunno." The look on her friend's face when she turned around didn't help matters. "Woman, I don't know! We don't talk constantly. He has his own thing going on." The tracing of her finger around the rim of her glass became slower, more awkward. "I'm not good at conversations like that anyway. I don't know how to push him without, like, pushing him. You're supposed to be gentle about this stuff… or at least that's what I keep reading in those books Doctor Acker has in his waiting room."

Schwarze pointed at herself. "I could try?"

"Eh…" Her initial dismissal of this idea faded before she could vocalize it. "I guess I don't see how you could do any worse than I would, go for it."

"I so deeply appreciate your steadfast vote of confidence."

About as much as Indigo appreciated her sarcasm. "I'm about to throw this glass at you." Once her empty threat faded away, she offered a bit of good news. "He seems pretty interested in moving into our apartment block, though."

Happy claps. "Oh! Cutie next door! How exciting!"

Indigo rolled her ochre eyes. "Gods help me, you really need a date."

Schwarze, however, stood undeterred. "I do, and he's it." Her face went blank after a moment. "Unless… I'd be stepping on your toes?"

"Uhhhhhh…" Indigo whirled on her stool and stared at the haphazard artwork arranged on the far wall above the tables and benches. "I'm—I don't know." She could feel Schwarze's gaze on the back of her head, but refused to face it. "He says I remind him of his mom. I'm not sure it'd work out."

"In a complimentary way, or as an insult?"

There wasn't an immediate answer to this. Indigo finally, slowly, turned back around. "I'm _pretty_ sure he didn't mean it as an insult, but it was part of a serious conversation, so." Schwarze's tilted head indicated a desire for further clarification. "We were talking about how much one of the girls up at Beacon looked like his ex-girlfriend. Turns out he meant Pyrrha Nikos. Ain't that some shit? Anyway, yeah."

"Oh my." Schwarze reflexively dealt with the adjustment of fire Dust on her stovetop for a moment. "His mother must have been a fine woman, then, if he was willing to bring it up for such a serious chat."

Indigo grinned at the sly implication. "Oh, fuck you." Before the conversation could continue, however, ringing from the left pocket of her garish purple- and yellow-striped ankle skirt brought it to a halt. A glance at the number caused her brows to raise with surprise. "What the… why is Heather calling me on a Dimanch? She never opens on weekends." A tap began the call, which she placed on speaker.

"Oh, thank the gods, somebody finally answered me," came a squeaky woman's reply. "Something's going on. Have you gotten a call from Glynda Goodwitch?"

"No, why?" she asked, rubbing lightly at the scar that split her left eyebrow in half.

"I dunno, man! All the other designated merchants are getting calls and nobody's telling me what's—" Heather went silent. "Oh. This is her. I gotta go."

"Good luck, I guess?" Indigo ended the call and blinked. While immensely curious about the situation, she had little reason to worry — after all, her last interaction with the Assistant Headmaster was positive.

Schwarze cocked her head as she went about plating Indigo's meal. "I wonder what's going on. Hopefully nothing serious."

She shrugged. "Not a clue. Knowing Heather, though, in about ten minutes the whole damn city is gonna hear about it."

Yet nothing happened. Those ten minutes became twenty without another word from the gossipy shop owner. Indigo stopped eating and playfully bickering with Schwarze when she realized the time and began to wonder what might be afoot. She didn't have long to wait; her Scroll rang shortly afterward. Indigo placed the call on speaker after sharing a concerned look with Schwarze. "Miss Goodwitch. Sounds like you've got a few shop owners in a tizzy today."

"Good afternoon, Miss Stahl, and yes, you have no idea." A pause. "Beacon Academy was selected as the intake campus for this year's Academy rebalancing. We're getting a lot of new students and we'd like an on-campus Dust stockpile to address their needs in the short-term until we can enroll all of their weapons into the local merchant system."

More potential customers, then; Indigo couldn't stop a huge grin from appearing. "How much Dust are we talkin'?"

"So much that we've spent the last hour draining a few stores in the River Commercial District. I'm aware that you don't have much physical inventory… but are you and your employee available for courier work?"

"You bet." She cocked her head again. "This feels like you're doing me a favor."

"Somewhat. I've had two teams praise your access to specialty ammunition and I'd like to direct some more business your way. First, however, I need bodies to bring us our initial requisition."

Lien signs sparkled in her ochre eyes. "Say no more. I'll call my guy as soon as we're done."

"Excellent. Expect the standard courier's percentage and the manifest in short order. The airship leaves in forty-five minutes." With that, Glynda hung up.

"Good news, then!" Schwarze concluded with a toothy smile.

"You bet your ass!" Indigo fumbled excitedly with her Scroll to call Opher. "New guy! Get over to the pub right now. It's money time!" she yelled as soon as he picked up.

"Hi cutie!" the willowy Atlesian chimed in loudly.

"Hello, Schwarze, and for the record I am _closed_ today," he said caustically. "So unless the shop is literally on fire—"

"Shut up, shut up, shush, shhhh, quiet," she said, waving at his voice despite the fact that he couldn't see it. "I seriously need you here. Like, now. Beacon Academy needs couriers to bring them a Dust shipment." The manifest arrived as promised; she removed the Scroll from her ear to take a look. "Gods help me," she muttered as her eyes ingested the details. "A _big shipment_. This is at least eight standard pallets' worth of product." No answer from Opher. "Are you listening to me? I'll translate: our cut would go a long way toward a potential apartment for you."

That wasn't the reason he was quiet. "Beacon?" he finally asked.

"Yeah." Her eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, did you ever talk to Pyrrha Nikos? She called me looking for you. Said you forgot your new hat, or something." Her face went blank. "Gods, I'm just over here name-dropping a Nikos like she's our mutual buddy. What the hell."

"Yes, she did." At least he sounded a little more enthusiastic now. "Fine. I'll be there in about ten minutes."

Indigo hung up and rubbed her hands together with glee. "Week hasn't even started yet and I'm already making money."

"Perhaps you'll make enough to give yourself the next weekend off, then?" Schwarze needled as she cleaned a shot glass.

They exchanged smirks. "One of these days, Voss…"

Opher's estimated time of arrival wasn't far off; he shuffled in through the front door of the pub about eight minutes later. Indigo expected him to look like a disaster, but he didn't — his white long-sleeved tee, black cargo pants, and usual hat were all in order, and his brown hair had clearly been combed. As ever, he was clean-shaven. "Fuck you, how do you get ready so fast?" was her greeting.

"There's not much to do," he replied through a weak grin. His eyes went to Schwarze for a second. "I wish you looked as happy to see me as she always does. Maybe I oughta work here instead."

"You are _hired_!" she said instantly.

"Oh, both of you shut up." Indigo used her reflection in the polished bar top to adjust her own hair. "I wouldn't ask you to wrangle an order like this alone when I don't know how much help you might or might not have, so I'm going with you."

Opher's grin became a little more intense. "Are you cut out for the _rigors_ of courier duty, young lady?"

A smirk she matched. "Shut up." She used the chance, and her sleeveless tank top, to show off some muscle. "I could bench-press your skinny ass." Her Scroll emitted a chime; the message she found waiting gave her the location of the staging area. "Wow. We'll have to take a taxi for this. I'll call."

"Fine." While she did that, Opher sat at the bar and eyeballed what passed for the news on his own device. Most of it would be best described as fluff, all positive, with very little reporting on such stories as accidents. As ever, there was a lack of inter-Kingdom affairs to be found, as if each bastion operated mostly as an island. He realized that wasn't an incorrect metaphor; they _were_ islands, but the ocean was made of Grimm. All the while, Schwarze grinned adorably at him. "I see you up there."

She couldn't contain her glee. "Indy says you're thinking about moving in with us! I… that's not exactly what I meant—"

Indigo, done with calling a taxi, found a chance to needle her for once. "Although she wouldn't say no if you offered…"

"Shush!"

"Okay, okay, calm down." Opher glanced between them with a faint smile. "She's right, I am, and, yeah, it's the empty corner unit on your floor."

Before Schwarze could get started, Indigo intervened firmly. "Well, there's no time for you two to get married right now. Our ride will be here in a second."

"Cute." Opher looked out the window as a yellow car arrived out front a moment later. "At least they're punctual."

Schwarze heralded their departure with two-handed waving. "Bye, Indy! Bye, cutie!"

"Yeah, bye, geez you drink too much coffee." Indigo led him out; together they piled into the back. Opher ended up behind the driver, a pleasant young man with silver hair and red glasses. "Yo. We need to get to the freight hangars at Queen Fiona Airship Terminal and _fast_." She leaned forward between the seats and showed him the proper address on her Scroll.

"You got it," he replied. They were off.

Opher masked his curiosity about being in a car — this was his first ride since the things had been _invented_ , after all — by staring at his Scroll again. Indigo, meanwhile, was content to crunch out the potential windfall of their little jaunt based on how many other people showed up at the terminal. The air was otherwise filled with the peppy music that came from the taxi's speakers. "Let's see, if it's four, then…" She tapped rapidly at the screen. "Or six…" More tapping. When she realized her employee's rather stoic demeanor, she stopped and squinted at him. "You look bored."

At least the ride was relatively comfortable — and for a weekend afternoon, traffic proved to be light. Most of it was other taxis zipping about. He swiped left to get to another news article. "I am bored."

"Did you check into any of those Scroll numbers I gave you?" She meant the potential therapists, a list of which she'd given him earlier in the weekend. His failure to give any sort of answer was all Indigo needed to hear. Keen to keep the matter low-key since unfamiliar ears were around, she only added, "You're killing me, man."

Snark was his initial thought, but Opher couldn't manage it when she was just worried about him. "It's just… I don't know. Talking to a stranger about this stuff seems a little, you know, harder than talking to friends."

Her eyes widened a little. She and Schwarze had somehow been promoted to friends yet both missed the memo. This brightened her mood. "We're just worried."

"I guess I get it." Opher gave her hair a little ruffle, an effort for which she swatted and grunted at him. "Yell at me about it when we get back to the pub. Or shop, whichever."

"Oh, I will."

Thanks to some fairly sharpish driving, their taxi arrived at the chain link gate which guarded the freight terminal of Vale's largest airship facility shortly afterward. The driver's work was done; Indigo picked up the tab after they got out, he drove away, and together she walked with Opher toward the sentry post. A stern-looking female guard eyed them all the way there. "ID, please," she stated. Both handed over their chips for scanning, and both received green lights of approval, after which the guard became a little more friendly. "Ah, Dust merchants. You must be here for the load in hangar two."

"Yep." Indigo tucked her chip into a back pocket and led Opher through the gate as it opened.

They had to veer hard left to stay on the designated yellow path and avoid the airship landing and takeoff pads — half of which were currently in use by vessels whose loading doors were open to accept or disgorge cargo. The concrete baked them with irradiated heat from the sun above. Luckily, hangar two was indeed the second one from the front and didn't take long to reach. The pad in front of it, however, was empty. A surprise waited as they walked into the small door next to the larger airship entrance: there was no one else inside. Ten pallets of stuff, taller than even Opher's six and a bit feet of height, were neatly situated in the front-center of the capacious area, but no other couriers were to be found.

"Uh, where's everyone else?" Opher asked, his voice echoing off the concrete floor and steel roof supports.

"I'm sure we ain't gonna be the only ones," she advised, sandals scraping along the hard floor as she walked over to examine the cargo. "Glynda Goodwitch is probably still offering the work to other shops." Opher came over to look as well, but she was far more versed in the label jargon than he. "Lotta powder in here." She gently tapped on one of the cases. "Yeah. This is powder containment."

The door they'd used burst open again, revealing another woman with periwinkle hair in a fancy, long braid who crouched over to catch her breath. Her skin held a rather peachy undertone, and her face indicated she was slightly older than Indigo. "Gods help me," she wheezed.

Indigo recognized her immediately and muttered to Opher, "That's another one of the designated merchants. She owns a shop near the docks." Her next words were louder. "I'm surprised you didn't call everyone to warn us after you were done with Glynda!"

"I didn't have a chance!" she squeaked in reply. "I was busy trying to raise our couriers but nobody has their Scrolls on!" After another few breaths to steady herself, she brushed off her jeans and walked over to them. "This is your first year on the list, right? They did it two years ago too. I guess I can't complain much, the money's really nice." She regarded the taller Opher with a cheerful smile. "Hey, did you manage to hire someone, finally?"

Indigo smirked and introduced him. "Yeah. Heather Rainglass, Opher Riese. He's my new guy."

"I'm pretty sure that's the first time she's used my actual given name since she hired me." Opher shook Heather's hand, but there wasn't any time for further conversation; the potent wooshed shriek of a landing airship just outside the closed hangar door precluded it. "Is that our ride?" he asked once it died down.

"She did say the airship would be leaving in forty-five." Indigo glanced at her Scroll. "And that's not too long from now." They watched the huge door slide up and along a set of horizontal rails in the roof structure above them. Sure enough, a squat, four-engined cargo airship with its rear doors open and a ramp deployed now occupied the pad. There were four white pallet jacks in the airship — the only ones in sight. "Welp, grab a jack. Looks like we're the only ones that bit."

Opher rolled his eyes and did as instructed. "Terrific."

While the spindly Heather struggled with the weight of the pallet she chose to load first, Opher and Indigo easily shoved around their cargo. Both of them loaded two pallets for each one Heather managed to push up the ramp and into the hold — in fact, the last three to go on were a joint effort between all parties. All the while, the two women chatted like old friends about their businesses, a fact which left him a little curious. They were the ones who went about securing the pallets via a system of metal hooks and cable on the floor of the cargo hold, since Opher wasn't familiar with the procedure just yet. Once finished, Indigo poked her head into the open cockpit door. "Load secured," she said. "Punch it." She turned her head to her companions. "At least there's enough seats in these birds for all of us."

Six, in fact, three on each side. They all piled into the left side row and strapped in as the ramp retracted and the rear doors closed. Indigo sat between Opher and Heather. "You're awfully friendly," he pointed out. "Aren't you technically competition?"

Heather cocked her head at this notion as they rose slowly into the hot summer air. Thanks to the interior sound deadening, conversation was still relatively easy even with the engines at full power. "Competition?"

"He's new to this side of the business," Indigo replied through a slightly awkward smile.

She nodded and decided to explain further. "Nah, we're not. We're a government designated vital industry. Even if there wasn't a ton of money in the market — which there is — the Crown guarantees we stay in business. We're distribution points. It's more efficient for them to keep us afloat than to manage Dust allocation themselves, which is how they used to do it way back when. Provides more jobs, too, when each shop gets big enough. Granted, there are some thresholds you have to meet before you qualify, but..."

"Like what?"

"The age of the shop, the number of employees, that sort of thing," Indigo replied while examining the state of her gold fingernail polish. "New, small shops like mine don't get as much government support as the huge shops like Heather's. We have to get established first."

"Huh." Opher eyeballed his boss mockingly. "Is that why you pay me peanuts?"

Her wide eyes snapped right over to meet his. "I pay you plenty!"

Heather regarded their exchange with visible amusement, but said nothing, and after this the chatter died down. Through one of the cargo hold's few windows, they saw one of the escort airships pass by as they reached their cruising altitude for the short hop to Beacon.

A bit of turbulence knocked the wispy Heather around in her seat. "Oh, come on," she sighed, rubbing at where the belt dug into her waist. Those were the last words anyone said before they arrived at campus; the airship lumbered to a halt, spun slowly on its axis, then descended to a smooth landing on Beacon's pad one, the only one of the three designed for vessels its size. They all unbuckled themselves as the rear doors and ramp opened. The engines remained at idle.

"I'm gonna need this bird for routes later," the male pilot called back to them. "Can you unload here? Oh, and be sure to put the jacks back when you're done, they're labeled for this ship only."

Opher expected Indigo to complain, but instead it was Heather who beat everyone to the punch. "There's only three of us, it'll take ages to shuffle these pallets from the pads all the way into campus," she said, hands on her hips.

"Sorry, but the Academy dropped this on us at the last minute. Nothing personal."

Indigo resigned herself to the tedium ahead with a pat on Opher's back. "Come on, new guy, let's clear the hold."

Once they did — each pallet was a joint effort this time, in order to get it out and then off the pad as quick as possible — they had ten pallets of stuff to move a long way but no equipment with which to do it. They watched the fat old airship haul itself skyward for a moment; Indigo lost interest first and stared at Beacon Tower as she tried to formulate her next move. "Well. This isn't ideal. I thought they'd bring out jacks for us to use. They must have been as surprised as we were."

An idea popped into Opher's head. "I could go find some kids to help us. I'm sure _some_ of them must have some useful Semblances." Reluctant mumbling and hand-wringing from both women made him blink. "They're out here to kill Grimm. They can manage helping us transport ten pallets of Dust a few hundred meters. Besides, we'll be here to supervise them."

Indigo shrugged her acquiescence. "I guess it can't hurt. You're okay with the extra walking?" He nodded at her. "All right, go for it. We'll watch the goods until you come back."

Heather waved happily as Opher departed. "And catch up! I haven't talked to you in a little bit," she said to Indigo.

Their conversation fell away behind him as he proceeded toward the dorms, replaced by the tiny buzzing of small, nondescript insects that he waved away with his hand. Given that it was the weekend, he wasn't sure how many students would be out and about on campus, but at least this gave him the chance to encounter a certain set of eight alone to avoid any weirdness with others present. As he passed under the circular archway and approached the dorms, it seemed the main walkway was empty — he began to formulate a backup plan in case nobody showed. A couple of students were emerging from buildings further down as he heard footsteps on the stone behind him. Opher chose to investigate the noise first.

And he found Pyrrha, dressed in her usual outfit, but lacking all of her gold-colored accoutrements. It looked like she'd thrown on her clothes in a hurry — in particular, her usually-majestic ponytail was a mess. She approached him gingerly when he stopped and gazed at her. "Good afternoon," she greeted politely.

"I am not even the least bit surprised," he replied with a squint. "Or did you _see_ me coming?"

She maintained her polite smile and posture. "Well, yes. You're hard to miss."

Opher closed to a more conversational distance and gazed toward the airship pads, the sight of which was a warped mirage in the summer heat. "How do you detect it?"

Her eyes closed as she let that overriding, invisible wave drown her mind once more. "My Semblance involves the manipulation of electromagnetism — I basically throw pieces of my own Aura to grab and move metal objects. Necessarily, I learned quite fast what Aura feels like, for lack of a better term. It wasn't long before I figured out I can detect the Aura of others when I get close enough." They snapped open again. "I don't need to be close to feel this. Why is it _so_ much larger than—you have the Aura of a hundred people, not just one."

There was no explaining it neatly, so he stopped glaring into the heat haze and directed a softer look at her. "I'm not gonna answer that."

"I didn't think you would." Her smile never wavered. "How about this: what brings you here on a lovely Dimanch afternoon? Surely you're not on the clock right now, are you?"

Half a smirk bent his lips. "Indigo and I are here to help deliver a Dust shipment and we need some help. Got any friends with, I dunno…" He scratched under his hat and stared down the stone path in thought. "Ice Semblances, maybe? We've got no easy way to move the pallets." No easy way that didn't involve his unique leverage of Dust and/or highly unsettling magic, of course, but this he left out.

She got the hint anyway. Her eyes lit up. "Not exactly, but… wait here a moment." Pyrrha departed back into the dorm building, leaving a slightly perplexed Opher behind.

This delay stretched onward so long that Indigo texted him to ask where he was; he initially shut her up with Pyrrha's name and the promise of help coming soon enough. She fired back a request for an autograph. A minute or so later, he heard a noise above him and found the redhead looking out of a window. "Sorry!" she apologized. "We'll be right down!"

"Uh…" Opher watched her withdraw out of sight, then blinked as a grinning Yang stuck her fluffy blonde head out to look at him. A surprised Ruby joined her sister a second later, then Weiss appeared, bearing a suspicious — and tired — face. All three retreated simultaneously.

Nora threw open the front door not a minute after this, fully alert and whistling happily. Her hammer was in her right hand. "Hey, scrawny! Long time no see."

Brow knitted with displeasure, Opher folded his arms and looked elsewhere. "I swear, if people don't stop referring to me as scrawny, skinny, or some other form of those two words…"

"Why would they? You are." She looked back as Pyrrha arrived with Jaune.

"Whew. Too hot," he complained. Opher met his eyes and he tensed up slightly. "Right. What's up?" No response from him; Jaune emitted a nervous laugh and stuck close to the redhead, almost as if for protection.

Ruby and her entire squad arrived next — while she and Weiss were armed, Yang and Blake weren't. "Woo, do we have a _buncha_ questions for—" she began, only to fall silent upon seeing Opher's frown. "What?"

"I'm not here by myself," he said, pointing toward the airship pads. "Indigo is here too. So is someone else. It'll have to wait." He ignored Ruby's groan and eyed their numbers curiously. "Aren't we missing someone?"

"Nora insisted—ah, _asked_ me not to wake Ren up from his nap," Pyrrha explained. When Opher set off for the pads, they all fell in around him.

"Why do you need our help, again?" Yang asked quietly. "I think you can move this stuff pretty easy yourself."

Opher doffed his hat, only to put it right back on for the purposes of getting it straight on his head. "I would like general expectations of me to remain as low as possible."

"Because…?" the blonde brawler urged him, dead-set on getting _some_ kind of information.

After some introspection, hidden by his blank face, Opher decided that this part of the truth was something they could handle. "Look, I've been fighting most of my life. If people knew what I could do, they'd want me to fight again. I'm not interested in that shit anymore."

"Wait, were you a Huntsman? A soldier?" Blake asked.

"I've killed my fair share of Grimm. That's all I'll say."

Ruby approved of this at first with a smile, but the past-tense nature of the statement snatched that expression away. "If you were a Huntsman — which I'm not asking you to confirm or deny — then why the heck would you quit?"

He crammed his hands into his pockets with a sigh. "I got tired of it."

"Excuse me, what?" she replied, dumbfounded. It was a struggle to keep her voice low. "I mean, I only saw you fight once, but wow you must have saved a _ton_ of people. If I could do that I'd never stop."

Opher snapped up his right hand to shut her mouth. "I've already heard this. From you, from other people. A whole bunch of times. No."

"Honestly, I'm more concerned about his level of Grimm exposure if he was a Huntsman," Weiss remarked evenly. "Is it safe for you to even be _in_ the city?"

It was always quite strange to be on the other side of the knowledge equation — him lacking it and others having it — so he masked that feeling with bitter sarcasm. "Well, are we drowning in a pile of monsters right now?"

The heiress' eyes narrowed to slits. "I don't appreciate your tone."

"And I don't appreciate our little chat being just this side of an interrogation."

Pyrrha, smiling nervously, moved a little ahead of them and tried to defuse the situation. "Now, now, no need to snipe at each other. We're all on the same side here."

Ruby's cheeks still puffed unhappily. "Listen, the other kids have been on our butts about this almost since it happened. Give us something. Please."

Opher looked back to examine their faces and found exhaustion on them all, although Blake and Weiss held more of it than the rest. He couldn't deny them completely — a fact about which he wasn't sure quite how to feel — and came to a stop to address the group. "All right, fine. But make it quick before Indigo gets suspicious."

As the one with the most reservations, Ruby's team muttered their way into letting Blake get her shot first. She broke away from their gaggle, hand on hip, and asked, "So you're not up to anything suspicious, then?"

He continued to adjust the fit of his hat just to give his hands something to do. "No. I just don't want the hassle of everyone begging me for help again. I'm not in the middle of some scheme. All I want is some peace, for once."

Silence. They all judged his honesty to some extent — for Nora this process lasted about two seconds — then looked to each other for context. A few shrugs were exchanged. "I guess that's fair enough?" Jaune finally offered. "Not everyone wants to fight all the time."

"Maybe, but those people are silly," Yang countered with a grin. She took up the next inquiry. "Okay, so you wanna chill out. Fine. Buuuuuuut maybe can you teach _us_ to do what you did? Then we wouldn't have to bother ya."

This was a more complicated request than she knew; it left Opher scratching his head for a moment. While it was true that he'd only used Dust that morning, the basis on which the spectacle occurred wasn't exactly something he could pass on. Still, the idea wasn't entirely uninteresting — in his long life, he'd never really had the chance or need to be a teacher. "I'm not really sure what I could teach you. Or how we could arrange meetings without people being suspicious."

"Ahhh, I'm sure we could figure something out." A shrill whistle from beyond Opher's back caused Yang and the rest of the kids to look that way. "What was that?"

"Indigo's way of telling me to hurry the fuck up," he explained after a glance back. "We're stalling too long."

The redhead raised her hand just in time to keep Opher from walking off. "Ah, wait! Before we go… what if you gave one of us your Scroll number? Then we could keep in touch."

His face screwed up at the idea. "I'm not sure I wanna do that…"

"Please?"

If this was Pyrrha's attempt to pout at him, it failed, but the way her face looked drew a low chuckle from Opher's lips. "Let me think about it," he said after a moment. "We've got time."

"Fair enough." Pyrrha and Ruby walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him as the rest of their teams pursued across the scorching stone, visible sweat accruing on all their foreheads except his. They reunited with the two women about four minutes later.

"This was the best I could do," Opher said, motioning at the seven kids.

"Excuse you," Weiss muttered.

"Gun friend!" Ruby waved at Indigo.

While she waved back, her interest was mostly in Pyrrha's presence. The redhead interpreted her curious look and explained before she could even ask. "Consider it repayment for your help," she said cheerfully. "Although… I'm not sure exactly how we're going to get all of this to wherever it's going. I didn't think you had so much."

After an examination of the cargo — some of which bore the Schnee logo — Weiss cleared her throat for attention. "Simple. I'll lay a trail of ice. The rest of you can push. One — pallet? — at a time, if that's what it takes. I _could_ try using Glyphs, but I'd rather not accidentally prime all of this Dust and flatten the campus."

Opher, Indigo, and Heather exchanged a glance. "I guess it could work," he finally stated.

"Then let's get going!" Nora folded her weapon up and jumped to place it on top of one of the pallets. "Who bought all of this stuff, anyway? There's more Dust here than we could use in like, ten field trials."

"The school did." Indigo watched as Weiss began to lay a carefully-measured path of ice with Dust powder discharged from her rapier. "Make it wide. Who wants to help push?"

Jaune, Pyrrha, Yang, and Nora volunteered first — it took all four kids, plus extra grunt provided by Indigo and Opher, to drag the load to Weiss' icy path. At that point it became easier to move, so Ruby and Blake took over while the rest set up to move the next pallet. Heather eyed their progress with a frown. "This is gonna take hours. Oh well. I probably need the exercise."

There were other eyes monitoring their progress. Through his tower office window, and with the help of the zoom function of his Scroll's camera, Ozpin — alerted by Opher's entry scan when he left the airship pad — watched him walk toward the tower, saw Pyrrha rush out to meet him, then looked on as most of her team and Ruby's followed him back to deal with the Dust shipment. While he could have dispatched help himself — and would have had it been anyone else — Ozpin wanted to see what Opher would do if left to his own devices for a moment.

And he'd witnessed enough to make his decision. He needed some quiet way to deal with the problem. The Headmaster returned to his desk and sat down, searching his mind for a clean method to get Opher out of Vale. An idea struck: perhaps Vale's police department would be interested in an anonymous tip about someone in potential possession of a false passport.

* * *

"This is good, right? More classmates? More potential friends? Right?" Yang's enthusiasm about the news — which had been spreading even while they were busy with the movement of too-heavy pallets of Dust — earned no reply from the rest of her team initially. " _Wake up_ , lazies, I'm talking here."

"Do you ever _stop_ talking?" Weiss countered from her bed.

"Sheesh, you've been grumpier than usual today."

Ruby, until that moment lost in something on her Scroll, perked up at her desk and looked back. "She kinda has a point, Weiss. Something bothering you? I mean… besides the whole bunch of things you never wanna talk about."

It was the heiress's turn to exchange an awkward look with Blake. "It's…"

The Faunus set her Scroll aside and sat up in her bed. "It was about Velvet — my friend — but it's already been taken care of. I think we're both still a little rattled, that's all. We'll be fine."

Ruby had no idea Blake was even involved until this admission, a testament to the girl's outward calm that she couldn't help but to vocalize. "I didn't even notice you were upset! Should I be sorry? I feel pretty sorry."

"No, it's okay. I guess I'm pretty hard to read." A thumbs-up from Yang caused her to smirk. "That wasn't a pun."

"Hey, unintentional puns are the best kind!" The blonde quickly got back to more important matters. "Sure you two are okay?"

"I'm fine, I promise." Blake glanced over as Weiss added a nod of confirmation. "I think I would like to go check on her, though. Especially with so many new students coming. She… doesn't do well around strangers."

"Can I—may I come with you?"

Weiss' request left all three of them a little surprised. Blake, in the middle of putting on her boots, stopped cold and looked at her. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"I understand, but—" She was as fidgety as any of them had ever seen. "I just wanted to apologize for accidentally, um, scaring her."

Blake correctly guessed that Weiss meant something else by those words; once she had her boots on, she walked over and whispered something into the heiress's ear: "I'll let her know."

"Thank you," Weiss mumbled back.

"Don't stay out too long!" Ruby advised cheerfully. "We've got classes tomorrow!"

"I believe you've mentioned that once or twice," Blake said with a smile on her way by. "I'll make it quick."

"Once or twice? More like ten times," Yang remarked. She ducked as a plushie flew toward her head. "Have at thee!" Ruby's squeaky roar came next.

Blake heard Weiss warn them as the tussle began. "I am not in the mood for this!"

"You're never in the mood for anything!" both sisters fired back.

That was all she heard before turning the corner and departing earshot. In order to keep her promise, she darted quickly down the stairs and right into the humid darkness to find Velvet. This was easier said than done when the rabbit wasn't looking for _her_ ; Blake didn't really know where to start, so she chose to wander, starting with the dorm complex. When this initially proved fruitless, she decided to head straight for Beacon Tower — once she arrived, she'd pick another direction and proceed from there.

On the way past dorm building twelve, the final one in the complex, she happened to glance through its front windows and saw Velvet in the light, apparently mopping or sweeping — from here she couldn't tell. In order not to startle her too badly, Blake approached the nearest glass and tapped on it with a fingernail until Velvet looked her way. They exchanged waves and smiles before the rabbit Faunus came out through the front door to meet her. "Blake! I wasn't sure I was gonna see you tonight. I've got a lot of work to do and I thought you'd be asleep."

"I wanted to check on you first." Blake briefly examined her face — as usual, Velvet had her scars carefully concealed with makeup — and smiled. "Have you heard about the new students coming in?"

"Sure have. I knew there was a chance — that's why Glynda had me out here every night cleaning these empty buildings." A thoughtful Velvet allowed one of her rabbit ears to go floppy. "I just didn't expect so many." She caught Blake eyeballing her once again and reflexively touched her own cheek to ensure the integrity of her makeup. "Oh… I guess you both saw these last night, huh."

"Yeah." The way all of Velvet's gentle happiness departed left Blake's heart in pieces. "It's okay, Velvet. We know. Weiss and I. We… we know."

Her reaction was more instinct than conscious thought. "Know what?" she squeaked, conditioned to keep her secret safe — and determined to keep Blake out of any more danger than she might already be in for talking to her so often.

"Miss Goodwitch told us."

Those four words brought Velvet to a completely different planet. So unexpected was this news that she had to process it in chunks. Glynda told them — she told Blake _and_ Weiss? That part of it left her almost visibly staggered; she leaned on her mop for support and went about breaking down the next bit: they were still here. Or Blake was still here, anyway — and based on her demeanor, there was no reason to think Weiss wasn't still around either. They knew… _and they were still here_. Adding the first piece to the second caused her heart to soar; surely the two girls now occupied the same status Coco did, which meant trust from the administration about the matter and, more importantly to Velvet, the chance to make Blake her friend. Perhaps, with time, she might even befriend Weiss. A Schnee! Her friend! The once-impossible thought escaped as a surprised giggle.

Blake waved her hand in front of the rabbit Faunus' face. "Uh… Velvet? Are you okay?"

Okay didn't even begin to cover the spectrum of her joy. She leaned her mop against the brick wall and grabbed Blake in a hug. "I can't believe it! She told you!"

While the intensity of her glee evoked a little confusion, Blake discarded that feeling in exchange for the relief that Velvet found a smile again. "I don't think she had a choice," she mumbled as she hugged her back. "After we saw the thing on your neck, we had, um, _questions_."

Velvet's mind remained afloat on a roiling ocean of giddiness. "I bet you did! She seriously told Weiss, too? I just—I thought her family hated us. I still can't believe she didn't know—"

"Us?" an uncertain Blake mumbled. Her hug became somewhat more tense.

There was no stopping this snowball now; Velvet had her first chance to make a friend since Coco, the second chance she'd ever gotten in her brutal life, and she was too drunk on joy to listen to the little voice in her head telling her to shut up. "Well sure, the whole camp."

"...camp?" Blake ended their embrace and stepped back, uncertainty writ on her pale face.

 _Shut up, idiot_. "I mean, that's what they called it. Honestly, it was just a prison. Couple hundred Faunus at least!"

" _Two_ _hundred_?!" Blake exclaimed.

 _Please, just shut up._ She didn't, brown eyes wide with verve and curiosity. "Sure! In a way, I'm kinda glad Weiss didn't know… erm, I guess she does now, and that kinda sucks, but it's weird. I grew up hearing how much her family didn't—"

"You grew up in the camp?!"

"I was born there, yeah—" At long last, the little voice in her head grew loud enough to lock up Velvet's throat. She took a step back, questioning and explaining Blake's horrified expression in one fell swoop of thought. "I thought you said Glynda told you everything." That word never came from Blake's lips, she realized; tears began to fall. She'd killed Blake. Killed her before their friendship could really get going. "B-but… I..."

There was no room for thought in Blake's head — it had been replaced with white noise to protect her from thinking about the implications of a Schnee Dust Company prison camp full of Faunus that had existed long enough for Velvet to be a second-generation victim. She stood there, mouth agape and stiff.

All color drained from Velvet's face as she leaped to begin damage control. "You can't tell anyone about this," she said lowly. "Anyone. Blake. Do you hear me? _Anyone_."

"Was it just Faunus?" she asked, staring at her hands as if they belonged to someone else. Velvet's silence was all the answer she needed. "Why… why would there be a prison camp for…" She squeaked when the rabbit Faunus grabbed her by the arm and nearly threw her into the building's lobby, displaying a surprising amount of strength in the process. "Velvet, why?"

"Forget it. Just forget everything I said, okay?" Ears erect with terror, Velvet searched the empty lobby for some method to fix this disaster and came up empty. "Just forget it."

"I can't forget it!" she snapped, Ghira Belladonna's righteousness flowing through her veins. "Why in Remnant's name would someone do this?"

"Be-because…" Velvet had no answer for this, either. "There's nothing you can do about it now."

Maybe not, but she needed to know who else knew. The first place to check was with her family, even though they were probably still asleep. She whipped out her Scroll to send a message, only to find it refused to latch on to Beacon's long-range CCT signal despite being mere yards away from the tower. "This useless thing," she hissed. "It's been messed up since before the last trial."

The rabbit Faunus knew better, but this time she managed to keep her mouth shut about it. She darted outside to grab her mop and went back to frantic cleaning. Her whole body trembled with dread. Blake struggled to get her Scroll to send a message, any message, to anyone outside of Vale. She failed. Repeatedly.

"Damn it!" she snapped again, almost throwing the device to the floor. "Why would Miss Goodwitch lie about—" But did she? No… she merely left out every detail, a showcase of omission that would have been impressive if it didn't conceal something so vile. One Velvet was enough. Now there were apparently hundreds. Her blood boiled. Only when the rabbit Faunus came to a halt, dead in her tracks and whimpering, did Blake realize a panic attack was underway. She walked over to check on her. "I'm sorry I snapped. I'm not mad at you. I promise."

"It's not me you have to worry about," she whispered back, barely able to get enough air out of her lungs to make the sound.

"...what?" No clarification arrived, so Blake decided her most immediate concern was getting Velvet calmed down again before Grimm made things worse for the students out on patrol. "Forget it. I'll sit here with you for a while, all right?"

"O-okay." Velvet allowed herself to be guided toward the stairs, where she sat stiffly and stared into the wooden floor.

"Breathe with me." An exercise Blake needed pretty badly herself; maybe afterward she could figure out how to get in contact with her parents, then how to cram this so far down her emotional throat that it wouldn't get her team killed in the combat trial at the end of the week — if she chose to remain at school at all.

In the meanwhile, perhaps she could figure out a way to look at Weiss Schnee without seeing a hundred scarred-up Velvet Scarlatinas in her mind's eye.


	11. The Better Part of Valor

The morning glow roused Yang first; her lilac eyes popped open, a smile bent her lips, and she gently sat up in bed to gather her bearings and begin the new day. She crossed her wrists over her chest in prayer, an invocation which lasted about ten seconds — then, knowing her teammate's propensity to be an early riser, Yang next saw an opportunity for her particular brand of humor. She started to lean over the edge of her bed and say, just loud enough for her target to hear without disturbing the other two girls, "Wakey, wakey, eggs and…"

Her eyes landed upon an empty bed. Still made, in fact, as if it hadn't been occupied at all during the night. "...Blakey?" the blonde concluded with a confused frown. Yang carefully jumped down from her bunk and stared at the empty bed some more. "Wow. She must have gotten up _with_ the sun."

Wandering into their attached bathroom gave her no other clues; nothing appeared out-of-place or recently used. Concern, though slight, joined uncertainty as she went back into the main room to get her Scroll. _Where are you?_ was the message she sent to the Faunus. _Class is gonna start soon._

No reply.

"What the…" An alarm from across the way cut her short: Weiss' Scroll, which emitted a classical tune of brass and string that drew the heiress into consciousness a few seconds later while Ruby, undeterred, snored away above her. "Morning, Weiss. It's _ice_ to see you."

"Please shut up," she muttered in reply. Blake's absence finally snapped her upright. "Where is—"

"Dunno. Messaged her. She hasn't answered me yet." Yang examined her bed a little more closely. "Did she ever come back last night?"

"I'm not sure, I fell asleep rather early." Weiss slipped out of bed and glared up at her noisy leader. "How does she _sleep_ with that noise pouring out of her nose?"

"Hold on." Yang cupped her hands around her mouth. " _Get up, dork, it's Mandag morning_!" she yelled.

Ruby startled into alertness, tangled up in her blanket… and right out of her bed, unceremoniously, ending up with a _thud_ in a pile on the floor. Iron moved around by her Aura added a distinctly metallic quality to the impact. "I hate you!" she growled, out of sight, from behind Weiss' bed.

"There she is!" Yang's smile faded a bit. "We've got a problem. No Blake."

"What?" Ruby stuck her head into view and blinked. "But we've got class in like an hour—"

"I know." The blonde scratched at her fluffy locks. "Let me try again." This time, she got a reply to her message which she read out loud for their benefit. "She's with Miss Goodwitch right now."

"Why?" Ruby asked as she shuffled around Weiss' bed.

Weiss herself had more of an idea — something to do with Velvet — but due to Glynda's demands she kept it quiet and focused on more pragmatic concerns. "Should we wait for her, or not?"

"Hold on." Yang asked the question, then decided to go grab her hairbrush to begin the arduous task of taming her golden mane. A reply came just as she started to brush. "Uhhh… she says she'll be back soon, so, I guess we just go ahead as planned?"

Ruby continued to rub the sleep out of her silver eyes. "Hnnnnnh. I hope everything's cool. Did she say what was going on?"

"Nope." It was then that Yang exchanged a look with a consternated Weiss and stopped brushing her hair. "What's up?"

"It's…" No. If she started thinking about this again, she'd never calm herself back down. "Never mind. She can tell us herself when she gets back."

"I guess." It was time to hype up what members of her team were present for the day ahead. She jumped in place a few times to get her blood pumping. "All right! Time for, uh…" A glance at her Scroll got her on track. "History class! Yeah! And then combat class! And then… uh..." She squinted at the itinerary uselessly. "It's too early for me to read. Weiss. Help."

"You're on your own." She made her way toward the bathroom to get ready. "How dreadfully exciting. I can't believe you talked me into signing up for this dreck."

"Hey, if we're going to be bored, we should be bored together." Ruby followed in order to brush her teeth. "And not everyone gets your super-fancy rich girl education, you know!"

"For that, I am so _very_ sorry."

Yang was content to stay behind in the main room to brush her copious locks, glancing at her Scroll all the while. "I'm sure it's not a big deal," she mumbled to herself, although a nagging little presence in the back of her head whispered otherwise.

* * *

Blake's hands were tied in every sense but the literal one. She currently occupied one of the two chairs Glynda usually had situated in front of the desk in her office while the Assistant Headmaster sat in her own. Distress had her feline ears flat against her head. The chair next to the Faunus was empty, but they weren't alone — Coco paced near the windows as if on patrol there. No one spoke; Glynda was busy with something on her projection screen, though the dour look on her face said it all.

"What a fucking mess," Coco finally muttered.

Glynda fired back immediately — on grounds of decorum, not to disagree with her assessment. "You'd do well to mind your language." She didn't expect the utter indifference with which Coco looked at her afterward.

"I—I think I want to go home."

Their eyes darted to Blake; each regarded her with sympathy, although more it of existed on Coco's face than Glynda's. The tall blonde had some bad news. "I'm afraid that isn't possible at the moment."

Unpleasant, but not wholly unexpected. Blake's ears somehow flattened even more. "May I ask why?"

"For the same reason the whole freshman class is currently sequestered. Your Grimm exposure is already too high to risk anything but brief trips into the city."

Her arms and legs drew up defensively. "Then why do you keep sending us—" A snort from Coco brought silence and a confused glance her way.

"We didn't _plan_ for you all to encounter this many monsters," Glynda replied, a little more forcefully than she meant to. Blake drew up in her chair even more. "Forgive me." Regal calm returned to her tired face. "This will be your last trial for some time, after which… we'll see," she stated. "For now, I'm afraid you have to stay."

It was the first time Blake had ever seen Glynda lose her cool, even for a moment — the outburst left her unsteadier than ever. She shrunk in her chair as much as possible and stared into her lap. "So I'm trapped?"

Her reply was the too-practiced recital of mundane protocol. "Not at all. It is merely for the best that you remain on campus for the time being." Glynda's green eyes became distant as she muttered, "Although I do understand the sentiment." If Blake heard this, she didn't react, so the tall blonde pressed on. "I'll admit, I wasn't expecting this conversation to happen _before_ the new students got here."

Blake's ears finally lifted as she blinked. "But you were expecting it?"

"It was inevitable that someone would notice and be concerned. I suppose if my biggest complaint is about people being too kind toward one another, then I should be counting my blessings." She swiped across her desk to bring up a different screen.

"Why didn't you tell us the whole story?"

Glynda locked eyes with Blake. "Look at yourself, then ask me that question again." A quizzical gaze from the Faunus only brought more urging. "I'm serious."

So Blake obliged, using the forward camera of her Scroll and a mirror app that made the screen display her face. Her pallid, weary face, bags beneath her bleary eyes, an absolute mask of exhaustion. The sight of it alarmed her slightly.

She caught that surprise and nodded. "Exactly my point." Another swipe to get to another screen. "And given who your family is… I understand your concern, I do, and I share it. But I must stress the need to keep this to yourself."

A request which felt impossible for Blake to fulfill. She buried her face in her hands. "I can't just—why would anyone round up others and put them in a—"

Coco ceased her window patrol and occupied the empty chair next to Blake. "Look, kid, Kingdoms get jails. Rehabilitation centers. They bend over backwards to help wayward souls. And if they can't, well… they end up out there. The exiles need prisons too. Actually, I guess they need 'em more than we do." She shed her sunglasses with a frown. "I guess somebody in the SDC managed to slip through the cracks and exploit the exiles for gain. System ain't perfect. Crazy assholes get missed."

"Someone that apparently hates my people," Blake mumbled through her fingers. "And someone who managed to get away with it long enough for Velvet to be born in such an awful place. She has to be my age at least. That's sixteen whole years. How could this happen?"

"The farther you get from a Kingdom, the easier it is to hide." Coco awkwardly gave Blake a few pats on her left shoulder. "Listen, I felt pretty bad the first time I heard about this kind of shit too. You… learn to live with it."

Her feline ears twitched each time Coco's hand made contact. "I don't want to learn to live with it, I want it to not happen in the first place."

"Then let us teach you how to fight it."

Glynda's words finally made Blake reveal her face again. She looked between them while grasping for a rejection that never materialized. Her biggest concern leaked out instead. "I'm afraid I might get my team killed. I don't know how I'm supposed to—" Words failed her, but the rest of the sentence wasn't necessary — their expressions said they both understood.

"Eh, you'll have me this time," Coco assured her at length. "I'm not gonna let something happen to Velvet's newest friend. She needs as many as she can get."

"Thank you, but…" Blake continued to struggle mentally with Velvet's plight; such a thing was so completely alien to her that she still couldn't begin to process it, even hours later. "I don't even know where to _start_ to deal with this. I couldn't imagine doing such a thing to anyone else. Ever."

"Trust me, I get it. Maybe we should move into the room across the hall, give you someone to talk to?" Even though her last attempt at support ended up with a dead body in Beacon Lake. She shook the image from her mind. _Try, try again_.

Blake hunched over again and hid her face. "That may be a good idea. I can't spend all week in the meditation hall. I don't think it would even help."

"Acceptance is the only way forward." Glynda only halfway paid attention to the miscellaneous drivel on her projection screen. "The world outside our Kingdoms — outside Menagerie too — is often not as pleasant as we would like it to be."

She tucked her Scroll away and answered with all the force she could muster while still being polite. "This seems a little worse than just _unpleasant_." Neither had an answer for this. "What am I supposed to tell my team?" she asked quietly, unable to stop squirming in her chair. "I have to tell them _something_. They're going to ask questions — especially Weiss."

Glynda replied with steely calm. "Then say that it has to do with Velvet, and out of respect for her privacy you wish to avoid speaking of the matter in any further detail, which I'm sure you'd agree is the correct thing to do."

"Yeah. Great." Blake eyed the time on her Scroll and hauled herself out of her seat. "I guess I need to go—" One more thing popped into her mind. "Actually, before I leave, could I get a new Scroll? I'm having trouble sending messages. I think it might have been messed up by the ruins."

Behind her stony face, Glynda twisted the truth into such a pretzel that Blake had no hope of viewing it as anything but pure honesty. "I doubt it's your Scroll. A lot of people are experiencing issues; something to do with the CCT system itself. They're working on it."

"Oh." Blake shot a forlorn glance at the device and tucked it back into her pocket. "I guess I'll keep trying."

"Keep your chin up, Miss Belladonna. If Professor Oobleck scolds you for being late, tell him it was my fault," Glynda advised, already past the conversation and immersed in her daily workload of school business as Blake walked toward the elevator.

Coco, still seated, turned back to the tall blonde as soon as Blake departed. "She should probably cover that thing up. Or have it removed."

"The latter isn't possible right now, I'm afraid, but the former... yes, you may have a point." One adjustment of her glasses later, she added, "I think I might have you remain on campus with her from now on. With so many new people coming, she'll need you around more than ever. I don't want her locked in a constant state of panic. She doesn't deserve that."

"Fine with me. I'm tired of patrols." She blew a few specks of dust from the lenses of her precious sunglasses. She caught Glynda eyeing her during this and blinked. "What?"

"Were you serious about volunteering to go with her team during the next field trial?"

She nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Glynda tapped away at her Scroll for a moment. "I'm going to set you up with some special equipment. If that flash of light happens again... I want to see it with my own eyes."

* * *

Thousands of miles to the west, a different sort of class was already in session. Raven Branwen, shielded from the harsh desert sun by a light-colored cloak, stood on a tall dune overlooking the remains of the village Amber had leveled some days previous. The Maiden herself was long gone by now, sent back home via a portal linked to Olivine, but her work still held value for Raven — and by extension, for Salem — as a chance to further ascertain the readiness of Lapis' successor. She stood to Raven's left, similarly clad in a tan cloak to deflect the pounding sunshine. They watched as a small band of nomads from the western part of the desert picked their way through the ruins. No one in the valley had noticed those prying eyes, likely due to the color of their cloaks, the heat shimmer, and the continued occupation of the ruins by a small number of Grimm. The nomads were engaged with the monsters even as they watched and seemed to struggle just to maintain a stalemate.

"They're persistent," Cinder noted in her usual monotone.

"And they're pissing me off." Raven shielded her eyes from a brief assault of wind-driven sand. "Give me a tally."

Her reply came in less than a second; she'd been counting them off almost since their arrival. "Thirty-seven."

That speed drew a weak smile across Raven's face. "Is that it? I'll watch your progress from here." She put her hand on her hip. "Make sure my presence is unnecessary."

"It will be." Cinder stepped off the peak of the dune and slid down the face toward her objective.

A few low hills separated her from the village once the sand bottomed out; she paused in this cover to produce two strange, highly curved swords with two prominent blades and several smaller edged protrusions from under her cloak. These she locked together via a powerful magnet at the pommel — the construction now resembled the spine of a bow, because it was; a button tap on the handle of one of her swords ejected a string from the tip with a hook on the end, which she hung upon one of the protrusions of the other blade and was also secured by a magnet. After a few plucks of the monofilament wire to ensure its integrity, Cinder set it down, flicked a sliver of yellow Dust from the threaded pattern on her dress into her open palm and drew an arrow from a quiver on her hip in the same motion. There was a slot near the arrowhead to accept the Dust, which she filled. She retrieved her bow, notched the arrow, and slowly moved toward the peak of the hill in front of her to assess potential targets.

Two presented themselves right away: a pair of young boys, wielding makeshift machetes and engaged with a young Razorback. The fast little Grimm proved hard for them to hit — and anytime either one of them did, it only made it angrier and quicker. She could easily hear them yelling at each other. There was no need for her to fire right away; Cinder bided her time, undetected, until both boys had their back turned. Now she fired her arrow — not at them, but at the monster — and sprinted over the crest of the hill. Her shot landed with an audible _thwack_ and detonated its payload, stunning the beast without actually piercing its hide.

"Hey, what—" one of the boys said, just before making the grave error of turning around and catching a flicked sliver of primed fire Dust to the face. It exploded with a crack, forcing him to cover his eyes.

A charging Cinder snapped her bow in half but kept the string connected; she whipped one of the swords around like a flail and tripped the other boy as he tried to flee, sending him right to the ground. The Razorback, recovering from its electrical shock, fell upon him and tore him to shreds while Cinder grabbed the other boy's skull and drove it into her rising left knee. This impact was enough to break his weak Aura and leave him unconscious — Cinder caught her blade handle after one more circuit above her head and used that sword to slit his throat. "One and two," she whispered, moving into the shell of a nearby house and waiting for someone to notice.

She didn't have long to wait. "My babies!" a woman shouted. Cinder watched her approach until she saw the active Razorback, which chased her back out of sight. This attracted two more monsters; Cinder peeked around the corner of a destroyed wall and watched them pursue her toward a group of stout-looking men with swords. They easily dispatched the creatures; Cinder decided it wasn't worth facing them head on so early and moved out of the destroyed structure to find other targets, reconstructing and stowing her bow in the process.

Another boy, perhaps a teenager, approached the scene from a different direction; he had the misfortune of being alone and unarmed. Cinder stayed out of sight and allowed him to pass — after a check for witnesses, she quietly came up behind him, dropped another sliver of yellow Dust down the back of his shirt, and let it detonate. The resulting shock locked up his frame and caused him to fall back into her; she readily bore his weight, dragged him into cover, then placed another primed fire Dust crystal into his mouth and held his jaw closed. The muffled explosion was sufficient to blow out both of his eyes. "Three." From here, she could see that the armed men from a moment ago had come over to investigate her first two kills. They found her discarded arrow — which she'd purposely left — and huddled around to examine it as she loaded a new one with a payload of blue ice Dust. This she fired at the man best-positioned to obscure its trajectory from her bow.

It lashed through the air, straight and true, and thanks to its stone tip and wooden shaft construction — materials hand-picked to minimize distortions in the electromagnetic Aura field of the target so it wouldn't move iron around in self-defense — pierced his defense and sank into his back. The ice payload shredded his lungs and heart, killing him almost before he fell. By the time the other two reacted, Cinder had already launched arrows to dispatch them. "Four, five, six," she mumbled, moving out of the ruins to find a fresh hiding spot. On the way across one of the dusty streets, she snatched by the collar another little girl, running from more juvenile Razorbacks, punched her in the face to stun her, then threw her into the waiting jaws of the monsters as she got away yet again. "Seven."

The cloak became an impediment — she craved efficiency over stealth and comfort and threw it from her shoulders. Sufficiently unburdened, loading her arrows and firing them became effortless. One flew into the leg of a woman trying to shield her children from the growing sense of panic that now seized the nomads — her shriek attracted not only assistance, but the hungry eyes of the Razorbacks. Among their number was a two-headed snake, a Taijitu — not the larger King variety seen in the forests out east, but a rare sight all the same. Eight, nine, ten, eleven; four with one arrow.

Other nomads rushed to help get the children away as their mother lost limbs, then her life, to the beasts, but without the three sword-wielding men she'd killed a few minutes earlier, they were ill-equipped to do much but die struggling. Cinder helped them along with her bow where necessary, preferring fire-tipped projectiles. A particularly precise shot blew the left half of one man's skull off, which invoked a terror so potent from his companions that Grimm from beyond the village took interest; she could see them coming, black dots warped in the heat against the endless sand. There was little time to stand still, however. She abandoned her sniping position and made for the outskirts of the village to catch anyone who fled. So long as she stayed out of their sight, the Grimm didn't care — they had easy targets to feed on.

Cinder climbed a hill opposite from the one where she'd started to survey her progress, whispering a number every time she watched someone die. Just after she reached thirty, the Grimm chased a group of four children and one man out of the ruins — at first glance, they seemed to be a family — and they rushed toward her. "Help us!" the man screamed, wholly unaware of the danger in front of him.

Silently, she notched and aimed an arrow past him until he drew to unmissable closeness, then launched it into his forehead instead. To deal with the screaming children that now fell upon her, she holstered her bow on a hardpoint on her back and used her fingertips to flick primed shards of Dust from her dress. Those practiced movements yielded a fire rate similar to a semi-automatic pistol; fire, ice, electricity, even wind and rock jumped from her person, all intended to knock down and stun the panicked kids so the Grimm could do her work and she could save her arrows. There was just enough time for her to yank free the one she'd spent on the man before the beasts arrived to tear his children apart.

They flashed past her as she ran — or at least most of them did. Two young Razorbacks decided she would be a better meal and charged, only for her to spike wind Dust shards into the sand in front of them, whose detonations knocked them over onto their backs. She drew and split her bow in one quick motion, gutted them from neck to tail, then sprinted back into the ruins of the village to break line-of-sight with the other monsters. There was still work to be done. "Thirty-five," she murmured. Two more.

Cinder used the presence of Grimm to determine whether or not an area was worth searching as she darted between broken walls and across empty paths. Her main concern was staying out of their sight. So long as she did, they would never sense her emotionally. The Taijitu she'd seen earlier seemed to be hovering around one destroyed house in particular, the most complete ruin in the village and the only building that still had any portion of its roof. It poked one of its snouts against the outer wall as she approached it from behind quietly — its second white head saw her, however, and struck out, mouth open. She threw a larger orange Dust crystal from a pouch on her hip into its maw, then sprang to one side to force the other head to travel in front of it just as the crystal exploded. Both were caught in the lava, although she needed a sword strike to finish off the creature. About a minute later, as she was pretending to turn to leave, she heard noises from the structure.

"Wait!" A woman's voice. Cinder looked over her shoulder as its owner emerged, white as a sheet, trembling vaguely underneath her cloak. "Wh-who are you?"

Cinder said nothing; she only stared, blankly.

The woman had bigger problems at the moment, or so she thought. She wrung her hands nervously. "Li-listen—could you help me find my daughter? I told her to hide but I don't know where she ended up." After Cinder failed to answer again, she turned away and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Clover! Clover! Where did you go, honey?" When she turned to shout in the direction where Cinder stood, an arrow flew into her throat.

As she gurgled and staggered, Cinder lowered her bow and waited. Sure enough, a screaming child stumbled out of another ruined building and ran toward them. She arrived just as her mother dropped to the sand. "Mommy!" the little girl yelled, fruitlessly trying to shake her dying mother awake. "Mommy!" When that failed, she rose and fell upon Cinder instead, pounding on her lower body with tiny fists. "Why did you hurt mommy?" she wailed.

Cinder regarded her attack with empty yellow eyes. The girl couldn't have been more than six, maybe seven. She could feel her Aura react to the impotent strikes, moving iron around under her skin despite being in no danger. One good palm to the face served both to break the child's Aura and to stun her. Her emotions had attracted a few Razorbacks that still roamed the area, therefore Cinder decided to set her up as bait and take her leave. This she accomplished with two thumbs pressed into the little girl's eyes until they popped with the force, after which she left her to writhe and scream on the ground. "Thirty-seven," she said, striding away toward the hill where Raven awaited her.

She was still shaking the blood off of her hands when she arrived a few minutes later. Raven, noting this and the sweat that clung to every inch of her exposed skin, couldn't help but raise a brow. "Lose your cloak?"

"It was in the way." Cinder's vacant expression remained unchanged. "Thirty-seven out of thirty-seven. How long?"

She checked her Scroll as they walked up the dune. "Twenty-four minutes. Not bad."

"Critique?"

Raven shrugged at this as they wandered over the crest of the dune and continued east to get back to their camp. "I couldn't see a damn thing from out here, you tell me."

"I could have used less arrows." Her empty eyes took in what remained of the rainbow Dust pattern on her red dress. "And Dust."

Of more interest to Raven was Cinder's emotional disposition — what little there was on display. "It'll get easier once you have access to our gift. The Aspect's main concern is whether or not you feel you're ready to accept the mantle." No reply caused her to scowl faintly. "You realize that this is the Maiden's burden, don't you? Day in, day out, whenever you're asked to do so, you do so. No hesitation."

Finally, Cinder reacted; she came to a stop and gazed at Raven for a quiet moment before her eyes went back to the village they were leaving behind. "What burden?" she asked, and turned away to start walking again.

Raven stared at her back for a second or two, brow furrowed, before she moved to catch up.

* * *

This was the first real time any of them had spent in one of Beacon's classrooms. It resembled a small lecture hall, semi-circular and split into five vertical tiers with a ramp down their center and four chairs to each side of it, giving a total capacity of forty students. Each row had a large wooden desk that ran from the aisle to the wall to provide a writing surface. The audience didn't even reach half that number; besides Ruby and her whole team — except a conspicuously missing Blake — plus Pyrrha's crew, there were eight other kids present including Penny and Ciel, who occupied seats at the back of the room and looked down upon everyone else. At the center, zipping around his desk like a housefly and speaking even faster still, was a man with hair best described as _shrubbery_ both in color and disheveled style. He wore glasses, and a yellow tie, although the latter wasn't tied quite right and hung loosely around his neck. His white collared shirt was only half tucked-in.

And Bartholmew Oobleck was still in the middle of what seemed to be an introduction to the purpose of his class — ostensibly, at least. Ruby had given up trying to understand it about ten minutes ago, while Pyrrha, seated in the level below and in front of her and her team, still maintained a posture which indicated she was paying attention. "He's still going," she whispered to her sister.

"I noticed," she whispered back. A nudge from Weiss drew her eyes. "What?"

"Don't be rude," she warned them, seated so properly in her chair that Ruby couldn't lay eyes on her without giggling. "And stop laughing at me!" she hissed quietly.

"I am so glad to see so many of you here," Oobleck continued at break-neck pace, "for this is one of the ways we still have to pass our history down to future generations. And without that, we are nothing." He zipped behind his desk and snatched up a clipboard. "Now, it appears we are missing one person!"

"Blake's on her way," Yang advised, her hand raised. "She was talkin' to Miss Goodwitch up in the tower."

"Very well then." Another zip, all the way across the room to get his coffee mug, then back to the whiteboard at the very front of the hall, pinned to which was a map of Remnant. "As prospective Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is important for you to realize that knowledge is your most powerful weapon. We shall start from the beginning! The very beginning!" With a pointer he seemingly produced from nowhere, Oobleck smacked a point on the map — a spot on Solitas somewhat north and west of a dot indicating the position of the Kingdom of Atlas — and did just that. "Fifteen hundred years ago!"

Jaune cocked his head curiously. "I thought people were around way longer than that," he mumbled to Pyrrha.

"Well, yes," she mumbled back.

"Your curiosity is appreciated, Mister Arc, but please allow me to explain." Oobleck zipped to his desk and lingered just long enough to get another sip of of whatever was in his mug. "Humanity has existed for many thousands of years. Most everything earlier than fifteen hundred years ago exists as stories passed down from what few organized tribes of humans were able to exist long enough to share those tales among themselves. These are legends we cannot confirm or deny, given the immense difficulty presented by the creatures of Grimm when trying to undertake archaeology. The most accurate, verifiable history of our species begins with the discovery of Dust on Solitas."

"Oh," Jaune replied thoughtfully. "Got it."

" _Who_ discovered it, anyway?" Nora asked, her fleeting attention a perfect match for the vicious pace at which Oobleck spoke. The look on Ren's face indicated this was a question he'd wanted her to relay. "We never got a lot of class time at our old school."

"An excellent question, Miss Valkyrie!" Oobleck dropped a Scroll onto his desk, accessed its data, and placed that onto a projection screen emitted from a device in the ceiling so fast that the whole sequence appeared as a blur to their bewildered eyes. The image projected was that of a grand statue in Atlas of a stern-looking man, perhaps fifty, with a neat mustache and short hair — the coloration of which was impossible to determine, as his whole form had been cast in bronze metal. "This is Viorel Voss. Several centuries ago, he led an expedition from the south coast of Solitas — where Atlas exists today — into the snowy interior of the continent to find a new source of fresh drinking water. Instead, they found Dust and changed the world."

"Viorel… uh, wait, how do you spell that?" Jaune murmured as he dutifully took notes on his Scroll — as best as he could, given how fast Oobleck talked — then looked up when silence reached his ears. "Huh?"

The quiet was caused by Blake's arrival. She stepped gingerly through the doorway, head down, and darted up the ramp to where her team sat. Thankfully, she had the sisters between herself and Weiss, whom she refused to acknowledge on the way by. "Sorry," she said as loud as she could manage, "I had to see Miss Goodwitch about something."

"Welcome, Miss Belladonna, and I understand. Miss Xiao Long already told me." Oobleck adjusted his glasses for a millisecond and proceeded. "Now then! What sort of Dust it was that the Voss expedition found is not exactly known, but—"

Yang leaned forward and looked at the Faunus' weary face with no small amount of concern. "Geez, you look awful," she muttered. "Did you sleep at all last night? What happened?"

"It's…" She noticed silver and icy blue eyes upon her now, though no force on Remnant would make her meet the latter pair. "It's nothing. I'll explain later," she concluded, rubbing at her eyes. "What did I miss?"

"Not much, we just got started on the actual history part," Ruby assured her as Oobleck continued to talk at the speed of light below them. "Good luck following any of this. I sure as heck can't."

"Nnnh." Blake rested her chin on her arms atop the desk and stared at Oobleck. His words blended together into muddled, useless jargon which flowed into both sets of her ears. "Wow." She could feel Weiss still staring at her, but once more refused to acknowledge it. The rhythmic tapping of fingers on Scroll as Jaune continued to try and take notes brought her to the cusp of sleep.

Noting this, Yang decided to use her own device to record the class for Blake's benefit. "Did you ever come back last night?" she whispered.

"Late. I was with Velvet," she answered between yawns. Weiss' face drew tight upon hearing this.

"Is… she all right?" the heiress mumbled across her teammates.

To answer in the affirmative would have been a lie; to answer with the truth would have only made things worse. Blake had no idea what to do and remained quiet. When Weiss leaned forward to eyeball her directly, all she could do was shake her head and deflect the question for later.

Oobleck, who'd been talking the whole time, kept on blabbering. "The tribes which preceded Atlas used this discovery to drive the Grimm back from the shore and into the icy interior of Solitas, clearing the land where the Kingdom sits today. It was the Atlesians who developed shipping technology — waterborne at this early stage, as gravity Dust would not be found for some time yet — and spread the gospel of Dust across the planet. Slowly. Quite slowly, actually. As you might suspect, the settlement which became Argus received it first, at which point Dust proceeded south to the tribes which would eventually coalesce into the Kingdom of Mistral. Dust wouldn't reach Sanus for another twenty years, and another ten would pass before it spread across the whole continent to the desert."

Ruby raised her hand. "What about Menagerie?" she asked. "And the Faunus?"

All eyes went to Blake, who was so lethargic that she didn't register the attention at first. Once she did, however, she snapped upright and glanced around. "What?"

"If you're up to it, I'd love to hear the story directly from you," Oobleck explained. "After all, you are a Belladonna."

"Huh?" Ruby's expression became quizzical as she looked toward her teammate. "Wait… Blake? Why's your last name important?"

"My…" She hesitated, wilting under their combined focus for a moment until she decided to accept it — if only to have other things to think about than Velvet for a minute. "My father is the Supreme Chieftain of Menagerie."

This was news to the sisters, who regarded her with considerable shock. "Why didn't you mention that before now?!" Yang exclaimed.

"I already knew," Weiss mumbled, arms crossed as she stared in a different direction. Ruby and Yang turned their eyes to her. "Don't eyeball me. I wasn't going to bring it up if she didn't. It's called being tactful."

"I didn't think it was important," Blake finally explained. "We're all just students here, right? Names shouldn't matter."

The sisters cocked their heads at this sentiment, eventually nodded in agreement, then looked back at Weiss with slightly more teasing expressions. "What now?" she blurted out.

"Oh, nothing, Miss I'm-a-Schnee," Ruby giggled. A red tinge spread across Weiss' cheeks in response.

"Wait, you're a Schnee? Like, a _Schnee_ , Schnee?" Jaune exclaimed, whirling around to look at her.

"Oh, Jaune," Pyrrha sighed into her gloved hands. Nora busted out laughing.

Oobleck intervened to maintain order. "All right, all right, back to the topic at hand."

"Yeah…" Blake's feline ears flicked as she tried to gather her thoughts. "Our people called it something else when we found it way back when — that name is lost now, I guess. We never had enough of it to really clear the island except for the spot where Kuo Kuana, the capital, is now. When humans first arrived from Anima—"

"Approximately 1,300 years ago!" Oobleck said enthusiastically.

A sleepy Blake jumped with surprise. "Um, yes. They brought more Dust with them. And weapons that we didn't have the ability to make at the time. With their help, we claimed the high desert from the Grimm and found deposits of Dust we could mine ourselves. We're still exporting Dust today."

"And those deposits included the first known examples of gravity Dust, which were purchased by…" Oobleck trailed off, his eyes landing on a confused Weiss.

"What?" she asked with a blink. Then realization struck. "Oh, yes! By my great, great, great — just assume a bunch of greats or we'll be here all day — grandfather Wieland Schnee!" she proclaimed, her chest puffed out with pride. "Those shipments of gravity Dust helped jumpstart the airship industry in Atlas and, eventually, around the world. You're all welcome, by the way." She ignored snickering from Ruby and Yang.

"Indeed. As you can see, students, we're all connected in some way or another. Those bonds are absolutely vital to our survival. It is your duty to protect those fragile threads beyond our Kingdoms so that our species may thrive and discover untold wonders for generations to come. You never know. A village you protect may one day grow into a city; a city whose people may uncover the key to defeating the creatures of Grimm once and for all." Oobleck clasped his hands behind his back and inhaled a deep breath. "And it is our job to equip you with the knowledge you need to carry out this task."

His words had various effects on the students, ranging from the introduction of stars into Ruby's eyes to a jaw set with determination for Pyrrha — with three exceptions: Blake, Penny, and Ciel. The tired Faunus was in no mood for upbeat platitudes after her visit with Glynda, while in the back, Penny and Ciel were also visibly unmoved by his speech and sat with blank expressions. Before the lesson could continue, the Scroll he'd dropped on his desk began to ring. "Excuse me!" he snapped, flashing past to retrieve it and ending up outside of the room altogether.

While the rest of the students discussed Oobleck's words among themselves — save Blake, who rested her head on her arms again in search of a whiff of sleep — Penny looked toward her partner. "That was a nice speech."

Ciel's brow furrowed with disdain. "Sure."

She adjusted her pink bow, smiling faintly. "Class is about to end."

This earned a surprised look from Ciel. "We still have half an—"

Oobleck dashed back into the classroom and stood behind his desk. "I'm afraid that's all we'll have time for today!" he proclaimed hastily. "We've been summoned for another meeting in regards to the Academy rebalancing. Your next class will be delayed for thirty minutes beyond its scheduled start time. You are free until then! Good day! I shall see you all tomorrow morning!" And he was gone again in a cloud of dust.

"Awwww," Weiss whined. "I was just starting to enjoy this." Ruby, beaming at her, got a glare in response. "Don't start."

"Come on, Blakey, time for you to grab a nap," Yang said, patting her on the shoulder as she stood up. She hesitated to help her to her feet as well. "Up, up, come on. Let's go."

"Unnnnnnh," she moaned in response. Blake draped her weight onto Yang's right shoulder and shuffled out with her after Ruby and Weiss led the way out.

"Blake doesn't look so good," Nora mumbled to her teammates.

"No…" Pyrrha rubbed her chin in thought. "I hope everything is well." She stayed her crew in order to let the rest of the students clear out first, but Penny and Ciel remained where they were, so she waved them up and after Ruby and her team. They caught up to Yang and Blake first, who continued to lag behind. "Blake? Are you all right?"

"I'm just tired," she lied. "I didn't get much sleep last night." She kept her eyes on the floor whenever they managed to flick open for a moment. The sunshine outside helped her find a little vitality as the eight of them fell in together. "Ow. Bright."

"Soooo nice outside," Ruby chirped energetically. Once they reached the main walkway, however, a sight beyond the archway at the airship pads drew her attention and caused her to stop walking — this caused the whole gaggle to come to a halt around her. "Uhhh… that's a _big_ airship," she pointed out shortly.

"It's…" Weiss shielded her eyes with one pale hand and stared at the vessel. "A liner?"

One of the majestic classes of ships that ferried people between Kingdoms, this vessel was sleek and slate blue with three wing-like structures bolted to its starboard aft section and three more to its port aft, all aligned parallel with the sides of its capacious hull. Multiple rows of passenger windows were visible. The ship was longer than all three pads put together; since it couldn't land, it was forced to hover with a ramp extended from its amidships section so occupants could disembark onto the central pad. Its escort, half a dozen Bullheads, flew slowly overhead in a banked turn that would take them back toward Vale.

A curious Ruby walked toward the big ship to get a better view. "Hey, wait, could this be the new students?"

"I thought they weren't due until next week?" Pyrrha, also shielding her eyes, walked closer as well.

"I see people coming!" Nora hooted. "Let's go say hi!"

"But—" The redhead raised her hand far too late to stop Nora from bolting off. "Oh dear."

Yang, more concerned about Blake, chose not to pursue with the rest of her team as they all followed Nora with varying levels of enthusiasm. "Yeah, you kids have fun. I'm gonna—" She looked down, saw Blake gazing intently ahead, and lost her words. "What's up?"

The identity of one of the approaching newcomers had Blake interested enough for her to stand on her own two feet. She stepped away from Yang and tried to smile. "Um… I'd better go say hello too."

"Wait, really? Are you sure?" Yang followed close, ready to catch her if she tipped over.

"I'm fine. I think." She brushed her hair back and moved to catch up with her friends as they merged with a small crowd of other curious onlookers. By the time they reunited, everyone in the group stepped to one side to allow the newcomers a path forward.

There were six in the party, two of which appeared to be bodyguards of some sort that shared a black uniform. One was male, the other female. Three more struck them as being professors of some type, all middle-aged, studious-looking, and dressed smartly. The sole woman among them wore glasses and a stern expression which reminded all present of a shorter, stouter, brunette Glynda Goodwitch. These five formed a ring around one more female visitor — the one Blake put off a desperately-wanted nap to see. Here came a dark-skinned Faunus with tiger stripes tattooed all over her exposed skin, even her cheeks and forehead, the center of which bore some kind of red cabochon-cut jewel. Like Blake, she sported a set of feline ears, but hers were the majestic lobes of a Bengal tiger, orange and black with white tufts of fur to protect their innards. A gold ring was pierced through the left — two similar hoops went through the right. Her black hair was short and spiky, with several locks that flew off into tapered upward curls and styled to fall over the right side of her head. While she wasn't quite as tall as Pyrrha, and lacked shoes to enhance her height, her build was no less fearsome than the redhead's. Unlike Pyrrha, however, she bore the visible scars of numerous battles. Over this frame she wore a simple black sleeveless dress, trimmed with white hems, that fell to her ankles, plus a red sash that curled over her right shoulder and around the left side of her torso. Her brown boots emitted a polished sheen whenever the sunlight caught enough of them.

"Awful lot of fuss just for me," she quipped to the students. The sight of Blake and Pyrrha caused her face to soften and her gait to slow. Her amber eyes narrowed a little. "Go on ahead, I'll be along in a minute," she said to her party — the three professors acknowledged her request with a nod and moved on, while her bodyguards put a respectable distance between themselves and their protectee while still remaining within easy intervention range in the unlikely event that something happened.

Blake bowed at the waist as she approached. "Miss Khan."

Weiss, taking her cue from Blake, issued a proper curtsey, while Ruby, taking _her_ cue from Weiss, chose to bow since that was easier for her to pull off. A suddenly tense Pyrrha dipped her head solely out of politeness. Nora had no patience for _any_ of their silly protocol. "Hey! Welcome to Beacon! Cool tattoos," she said through a grin. Yang added a thumbs up in agreement.

"Thank you," she replied after a subtle snort. A brief hug with Blake came next. "Blake, you're looking…" Her face screwed up slightly. "Tired?"

"I had a long night, ma'am." She looked to her confused leader, as well as Jaune — both wore expressions saying they still had no idea who this lady was. "This is Miss Sienna Khan, Headmistress of Haven Academy — and, technically, the other High Leader of the Faunus along with my dad."

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Ooooohhh, gotcha. Hello!" she said with a nervous wave. "Um, like Nora said, welcome to Beacon, I guess?"

"Thanks again, but this isn't exactly my first visit." Sienna acquired a rather amused posture with one hand on her hip. "I was hoping I could save all the stuffy protocol and vapid niceties for Her Majesty later on. Everyone just relax. And call me Sienna, please."

Blake wouldn't dare. "You're here to see the Queen, ma'am?" she asked, head tilted with surprise.

"After I'm done mucking about with Ozpin, yeah." The humor departed her countenance as she eyeballed Beacon Tower. "We're both heading into Vale this evening to—ah, it's not important. It has to do with the rebalancing, that's all. Most of your new classmates are coming from my school." Pyrrha's continued silence drew her curious eye next. "It's nice to see you again, Miss Nikos. Is Beacon treating you well?"

Her emerald eyes shone frigidly. "Oh, certainly. It's not easy, but I have so many new friends to help."

Ruby glanced over at the faces of Pyrrha's teammates and found, to her immense surprise, confusion about the sudden tension between their leader and Sienna — like they knew less about their history than she did, and she barely knew _anything_. "Um, yeah!" she chimed in. "We always help each other in the field trials, you know? Gotta stick together!" She suffixed this with nervous laughter.

Sienna's eyes darted toward Ruby as she spoke, but went right back to Pyrrha. Since other students were around, she decided to step close and whisper her next words to the redhead. "For the record, your parents had nothing to do with anything. I know talent when I see it. That's all."

Pyrrha's expression remained cool and polite. "I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it, won't I?"

Stung by this, Sienna donned a tight smile and stepped back again. "I guess so." Blake got her attention next. "I'd better get outta here before Ozpin thinks I ditched his meeting. Tell your father I said hello, yeah?"

"Yes ma'am," she agreed, swallowing the issues with her Scroll and the network with a tired half-grin. "Good luck?"

"Luck? I'd rather have a drink." Sienna waved her bodyguards into motion and walked off toward Beacon Tower.

The general gathering broke up with her departure, although the eight of them lingered for an awkward moment as they processed the encounter. "She's got a lot of scars?" Jaune finally remarked.

"Huntresses usually do," Blake replied, already running out of energy. "My mom is the same way. I guess we'll all have a few before we're done here."

"Yeeeeeeeeaah…" It was Ruby who offered herself as a crutch for the tired Faunus this time despite their height difference making it rather awkward for Blake. "We're gonna go crash for a minute, I guess."

Pyrrha's smile lost all of its tension as she waved at Ruby. "See you soon!" Yet the redhead lingered as the four girls departed for their dorm room, which made her own team hesitate as well.

"So, what was that all about?" Nora asked, motioning between her leader and the rapidly-disappearing Sienna.

"A very intensive recruiting process, that's all." Pyrrha, eyes closed, tilted her head and smiled one more time to kill the topic. "Never mind that for now. Let's make sure we're all ready for combat class while we have the extra time."

The whole team looked at Jaune. "I know, I know," he grumbled. "My shoes are tied this time, I swear."

* * *

While they couldn't see it hanging in the evening sky from here, Indigo and Opher knew about the presence of Sienna's airship because most of the customers that passed through made some remark about it. "She flew her ass all the way from Anima?" Indigo asked as they went about closing up for the day. "That trip is no joke, even on one of those big birds. I've made it a few times myself."

He seemed to recall something about a relative being from the mountain Kingdom and nodded as he arranged product on the shelves in the back room for easy browsing in the morning. "Your dad's family is from Mistral, right?"

"Yeah. He's an executive in Mistral's branch of the Schnee Dust Company, so mom and my little sister live out there with him." She caught the passage of a police motorbike and a black van out the front windows of the shop and froze with surprise. "The hell?" she whispered to herself.

"What, did they forget to pack you in the luggage?"

Her head snapped around so she could glare mockingly at him. "Smart ass. Dad was originally an executive in Vale's SDC branch, so Violet and I were born here. By the time they asked him to move east, I was already doing my first tour with the Army. I couldn't go with them."

"Huh." Opher stepped out of the back room and closed the door behind him. "I guess you couldn't just transfer, either."

They were approaching uncomfortable territory now, but Indigo held her ground. "I could have tried but, uh, Mistral's Army doesn't have my MOS."

The terminology flew right over his hat-covered head. "Your what now?"

"Military Occupational Specialty. They can't just call it a job."

"Ah." She was visibly braced for him to ask her _what_ that job might be, but Opher stayed his tongue, keeping Schwarze's words in mind. "Shall we go pester Miss Voss? I'm in the mood for some entertainment."

Indigo deflated with relief and a grateful smile. "That was the plan." Awful, muggy air slammed both of them as they ventured out the door. The sunset glow cast orange and yellow hues across the sky, bathing Vale in gold. Thin, high clouds streaked like claw marks above their heads, lit up by the retreating sun. "Fuck me, man, how do you wear those long sleeves every day?" she complained, fanning herself with one hand. "I feel like I'm gonna pass out just wearing these tank tops. An actual shirt would kill me."

He only snorted in reply. They were distracted from crossing the street right away by the sight of the police bike and black van — both were parked in front of the inn where Opher was staying. "What's that about?" he asked idly.

"Dunno," was all a nervous Indigo could get out. She led him across the street by the hand, only letting go when they reached the other sidewalk and proceeded toward the pub. To her horror, one of the gray trench coat clad uniformed officers waiting on the sidewalk saw them and began to close the distance. "Uhhhh…"

The placidity on Opher's face never waned even as his boss got more and more nervous. They came to a halt when the policewoman arrived. "Yeah?" he greeted, since Indigo couldn't find her voice.

"Are you Opher Riese?" she asked, ruby eyes and smiling face laden with cheer.

"I am," he replied simply, hands on his hips, but no readable emotion in his visage. "Who's askin'?"

"Please come with me." Her eyes went to Indigo. "And sorry for startling you." She turned and started back toward the inn, splitting people on the sidewalk as she went.

He hesitated for only a second before pursuing, still as blank-faced as ever. "Keep a stool warm for me," he muttered to Indigo. "I'll be right back."

Words were out of her reach as she helplessly watched him go. It was the presence of the black van that plunged her heart into her feet. She was certain she'd never see him again. He'd been caught. Her advice had come too late. The rest of the trip to the front door of Schwarze's pub was accomplished on numb legs with shuffled strides; she found her best friend in an equally shocked state, head poked out through the doorway and mouth slightly open.

"Wh-what's going on?" she stammered weakly.

"I don't know." Both women watched as the officer escorted him into the inn's front lobby before a forlorn Indigo threaded her way past Schwarze and into the pub. "I guess I better put that sign back in my window."

Meanwhile, Opher scaled the stairs in pursuit of his escort, whose brown hair danced as she bobbed her head to the tune of something only she could hear. When he arrived at the door of his room, it was already open. She came to a stop and raised her hand to halt him before he could look inside. "Detective Ward, I've got him," she almost sang.

"Good," replied a much gruffier female voice. "Get him in here and close the door."

Opher was allowed to walk inside, after which the uniformed officer closed the door behind him. Waiting for him was a thin woman in a blue skirt suit with an orange tie over a white blouse and polished black shoes. Her olive face showed some age, as did the gray streaks in her otherwise black hair; she was also perhaps three or four centimeters taller than his boss. Unlike the uniformed cops, he could see her weapon — a black pistol rested in a holster on her left hip.

Apparently, his arrival had interrupted her search of his duffel bag; it and its contents, including the gold bars, were strewn across the top of his bed. "Stand there for me," she directed him, pointing at the window.

So he did, arms crossed, but still expressionless. "Any chance I can get an explanation for all of this?" he asked after a few moments.

"Just a second." She held one of the precious metal ingots in her fingers and stared at it for a moment before setting it back down and finally meeting his dull green eyes with her gold ones. "I'm Detective First Class Nila Ward, Vale Police." She first displayed a wallet-like item which held her ID and badge to prove her identity, then extended her right hand for a shake.

He obliged her with a short one and crossed his arms again. "Uh huh. And you're in my room, digging through my bag, because…"

"I won't sugar coat it—seems like there's a little bit of a problem with your passport." Opher had her complete attention by this point. "Got your chip?"

"Yeah." He fished it out from the back pocket of his forest-camo cargo pants and dropped it into her open palm. As he watched, Nila produced a reader from the inside breast pocket of her suit and performed a scan.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she eyed the screen. While the information itself seemed solid, problems appeared the moment she looked at the physical chip. Subtle elements of its construction and design were red flags to her trained eye; she'd seen other chips made by the same forger before and could pick them out from miles away. "This doesn't look like a standard Atlesian Mark IX personal identity chip to me, Mister Riese. Care to explain?"

He knew she wouldn't be asking questions whose answers she didn't already have, so Opher decided to end the interrogation before it even started. "That's probably because it's a fake."

Mildly startled by the instant forthrightness of his words, Nila placed a hand on her hip and stared up at him. "Sir, do you realize what you're saying? Possession of a false passport is grounds for exile. Immediate exile."

"I assume that's what you expected. I mean, you've already got the van outside."

Something was wrong; Nila could feel it as hairs raised on the back of her neck. His demeanor was completely incorrect — she expected the nervous panic of someone about to be hurled into the waiting teeth of the Grimm, but only got mild inconvenience, even _boredom_ , instead. She subtly rested her left hand on her pistol. "So… what? You're just straight up admitting it? No story? Nothing?"

His tone betrayed exactly how threatened he felt by her gun. "I can't be bothered, frankly." Opher's mind had moved on to other things at the moment, such as figuring out how he'd been caught. It didn't seem like a scanner could have betrayed him; perhaps the spy from some days ago had something to do with it. Adding credence to that possibility was the strange crow's recent disappearance. It was, at the moment, his best guess, since the only two people he really knew had no idea anything was amiss with his passport. He _seriously_ doubted either of them would have turned him in, even if they did know. "What happens now?"

"You get in the van and say goodbye to Vale," she replied plainly. "That's it."

"Uh huh." Opher looked over his shoulder and down at the first floor of the building next to this one, where Indigo and Schwarze awaited him. He was surprised at how fast he made the decision. "I'm not going." When he looked back, he found Nila a few steps farther back with her pistol aimed at his head. His expression failed to change.

"Don't resist," she warned him. "This doesn't have to get any harder than it already is." One hand went to activate the microphone on her lapel, but she only got awful static upon hitting the button. "Gods damn it, not now..."

A single thought would direct the true art to reduce her body to ashes, so fine and impossible to collect that her eventual funeral would feature an empty casket. Anyone who rushed in to assist her — in the unlikely event she managed to scream as her body evaporated under the might of that magic — would vanish into the artificially cold air of his room, their remains caught by filters in the HVAC units and lost for all time. As much as he wanted to feel the fear she expected of him, such emotion was beyond Opher now — the most unwanted gift of his blessed curse. He said nothing. There was nothing to say.

"Hands up," Nila ordered quietly after giving up on her radio. "I won't warn you again. Get them up."

His eyes narrowed faintly. Unlike Jade Tock, whose gruesome death she so richly earned, this woman was just doing her job... and he had standards, some of which were inscribed in dead language upon his left arm. Nila would not find her grave tonight, though her journey past it and safely to the other side might end up rather awkward. Besides, seven kids at Beacon had already seen one portion of the thing that divided him from humanity. What was one more set of eyes? "I told you no," he replied evenly.

One knock on the door at her back summoned reinforcements; the officer who brought him in opened it and stepped in, her smile vanishing as she processed the scene. She drew her own weapon from under her coat and pointed it at him too — it looked markedly different from the detective's gun, but that detail was unimportant to him at the moment. What happened next occurred in the space of approximately four seconds. Opher uncrossed his arms, ostensibly to raise his hands as ordered. This allowed him to concentrate more easily on the contortion of his Aura to direct pinpoint detonations of Dust. One puff of air blew the door closed, while two ghostly clouds of ice congealed on the women's lips. These bloomed into frost gags which sealed their mouths closed and kept them silent. Gossamer discharges of fire arced into their guns, heating them until they were forced to drop their weapons reflexively. Now he was free to dispense his power with flicks of his wrists to handcuff theirs together in shackles of earthen rock. Their ankles received the same treatment. As it ended, his hands came to rest on their shoulders, steadying them so they wouldn't fall over; he met their wide-eyed, muffled terror with a reassuring smile.

The next order of business was for Opher to clear a spot on his bed and sit the two women down. Once he did this, he leaned on the closed door and regarded them. "Okay, well, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not getting in your damn van." The uniformed woman nodded frantically at him. "Good. I'd also like to make it clear that I'm not going to kill either of you. I've got no reason to." He flicked his wrist once more while melting the ice off of their faces — he didn't want them to suffer any frostbite, after all. "Now then, all three of us are going to talk this over."

"H-h-h-h-how did you—" the uniformed woman gasped.

Opher waved her into silence. "Shh, shh. What's your name?"

"Chloe—"

"Fine, Chloe and…" He lost the detective's name for a moment. "Nila, right?" Another nod. "Chloe and Nila. Well, this wouldn't be the first time I've ever had a conversation like this, but I imagine the same isn't true for you."

"It's a really bad idea for you to have us restrained like this," Nila said quietly. "You're headed for execution instead of exile."

"There's a difference?" he asked, remembering his night outside the city wall. This shut both of the cops up for a little bit.

"I mean…" Chloe finally mumbled.

A disdainful smirk bent his lips. "That's what I thought. I've been here for, what, two months? And I haven't caused the least bit of fuss." Any escapades in the Emerald Forest were left out, of course. "Have the police even heard my name before tonight?"

"Well, no," Nila admitted, mostly to herself.

"Uh huh. But I don't have the right documentation and therefore you've gotta kick my ass out." He moved from his position at the door and began to pace, a stream of honesty pouring from his lips. "I'm not going. I like it here. There isn't a damn thing you or your department can do about it."

For some reason, this made Chloe giggle. "Sure, you got the drop on us, somehow, but you're just a—"

"Hold that thought." He looked down and noticed their discarded guns laid on the carpet next to his feet. Something he couldn't identify was screwed to the barrel of Nila's pistol. "What's this thing attached to the muzzle?"

"A suppressor," she explained. "Why does it matter? Let us go before this gets worse for you."

Thoughtfulness seized his expression. "So it makes gunshots… what, quieter? I don't know much about guns." Neither woman would answer him. "All right, I'll take matters into my own hands, then." While the finer points of firearms defied him, there was one thing Opher knew quite well. One flick of his wrist brought the air temperature in his room down to unbearable cold; ice formed on the walls, ceiling, and floor, thickening with every second that passed. The two shivering women gawked with surprise.

"You're… not holding any Dust…?" a dumbfounded Nila mumbled. She looked down at the various little crystals he kept in his bag, which had ended up at the top after he put everything back into it. Her breath, like Chloe's and Opher's, now departed as periodic, visible clouds.

"Uh huh." Opher displayed a remarkable amount of trigger discipline as he picked up and eyeballed Nila's gun.

"P-p-p-put that down!" Chloe stammered at him, hunched over — whether this was her attempt to coil up for an attack, or just an effort to stay warm, he couldn't decide.

"In a minute." He pressed the business end of the weapon to his right temple and donned a curious little smirk.

Nila's training kicked in as she stood up. "Stop! It doesn't have to end like—"

The sound, while deafening simply due to its proximity, did seem somewhat quieter than Opher's memories of gunshots past. It stung about the same as the last time he'd been struck by a bullet, a pain which lasted two or three seconds and never approached the threshold required to make him grimace. As for the bullet, it deformed and failed against the machinations of his Aura, which concentrated _so_ much iron in the right side of his face that his skin turned the color of the metal for a second or two. While the metal-on-metal contact produced a brief display of sparks, that was all — the shot failed to knock his hat off, much less harm him. "Just a second," he said, a little louder than usual due to the awful ringing in his right ear, "My ears have to… I dunno what the medical term is. Hold on."

Meanwhile, he waved his hand around at the thick ice he'd created earlier, applying invisible waves of fire Dust-fueled heat to evaporate it away. The air temperature returned to a more palatable level, though the two women were still frozen with shock — until Chloe fainted and ended up slumped against Nila, who barely moved with the impact. Guttural noises of terrified confusion were all she could produce.

The ringing in his ears finally subsided after another minute. "Anyway, that whole 'shooting me' thing isn't gonna work either." Opher carefully dropped Nila's pistol beside her leg on the bed, shaking his head all the while; he lifted his hat to show her where the expected bullet wound wasn't, which caused the smashed steel slug to fall out of his hair and into her lap. "As you can see. So, let's make a deal."

"Buh… buh?" Nila wheezed.

Opher moved his bag aside and sat down next to her. "Your options are as follows: first, you can say there's nothing wrong with my passport chip, and everyone goes about their business like this didn't happen. Or you can choose to tell the truth, then have the police come and try to dig me out by force." He gave her a few pats on the shoulder. "I'm staying here. What price is your department willing to pay to dissuade me of that notion? This can be a very inexpensive arrangement... if you keep your mouth shut. That's all I'm asking you to do."

"I—" A gently shaking Nila required more than one deep breath to rearrange her racing mind. Never in all her years of service had she encountered a person that could soak up a point-blank shot to the head — without any sign of his Aura breaking, she reminded herself — or to manipulate what she assumed was Dust without having a visible supply on his person. Perhaps she couldn't see the latter for some reason, which was fine, but the former defied _all_ explanation. His offer didn't seem to be much of a choice. "I think your passport is in order."

"And I think you've made a wise decision." Opher was all smiles as he stood up and moved over to Chloe. He woke her up by holding a gentle flame on the tip of his finger and waving it underneath her nose.

"Whaaaa!" she yelped, jolting upright and looking around. "Oh… it's…"

"Over, is what it is." One flick of his fingers dismissed their rocky cuffs. He helped each woman to her feet, dusting off her shoulders and straightening their jacket or trench coat in the process. "I'm not your enemy right now," he said. "But you can make me your enemy. Don't make me your enemy. I don't really even want to _be_ your enemy." Both of them got their weapons back, after which he placed some distance between himself and the door, emphasizing the ease with which they could now leave. "Now get the fuck out. I've got friends to meet."

It opened before they could move. "Detective," said another uniformed officer as he poked his head in, "The van crew is getting a little antsy. What should I tell 'em?"

"False alarm," Nila said, just barely managing to regain her composure in time. "There's nothing wrong with it. Bad tip. Send 'em home."

He flashed a thumbs up and disappeared around the door. Chloe looked at the detective with wide-eyed surprise. "You're not going to—"

"No, and neither are you." She showed off the slug that Opher's skull had defeated and put it into her pocket before looking back at him. "Who are you, really?"

He plucked his passport chip off the floor and pointed at it. "You already know."

"Right." Nila produced a business card from another pocket and handed it over. "Just in case." She nodded at Chloe. "Come on."

Opher tucked this away in his shirt pocket for safe-keeping. "Wait." He hesitated until their eyes met his. "Bad tip… who tipped you off? Out of curiosity."

"I wouldn't tell you even if we knew," she replied, hands on her hips. "But we don't know. It was anonymous. Anyway, have a good evening."

He watched them depart in silence, too busy thinking about whether or not he regretted what he'd just done. Perhaps it was merely the cost of faking normality; Opher couldn't hide it from _everyone_. Previous iterations of the situation — some clear, some so old their memories were reduced to hardly-coherent mental fog — ran through his mind. He'd dropped out of sight before. With the way Kingdoms operated, it wouldn't be hard to do so again. If anything, it would be far, far easier.

 _Should it come to that._ Right now, the concept of leaving was of no interest to him. There were still nagging questions about the redhead at Beacon Academy to answer — plus a new one about who had tried to rat him out, since he couldn't recall having made any enemies in Vale. These curiosities could wait for now; more urgent matters awaited him not fifty feet distant, which jerked him from his reverie and got him moving again, out of his room, down the stairwell, and back out into the muggy evening air. The police and their van were gone. Normal pedestrian traffic had already resumed. He threaded his way through the crowd and walked toward the pub — beyond one of its front windows he spied a droopy Indigo on a bar stool, staring into a glass of something, while Schwarze, leaned across the bar, muttered something to her. Both of their heads jerked toward him as he walked in, eyes bulged to one degree or another with shock.

The presence of two other customers, seated in a booth, kicked Opher into vague conversation mode. "Sorry about the wait," he said, taking the stool to Indigo's right. They kept staring at him. "What?" he added.

"You're still… here?" leaked from Indigo's mouth.

He pounded his chest once, sarcastically testing whether or not he was still corporeal. "I feel pretty solid to me, so I guess."

It was Schwarze's turn to be confused. "I don't get—what did they want, then?"

His voice became low. "They thought, in their infinite wisdom, that my passport was fake. I showed them the chip — it's pretty beat up. I think it annoyed a scanner somewhere. Maybe I should get a new one."

"But everything's cool now?" Indigo still couldn't believe it.

"Pretty much." Opher squinted at the bottles on Schwarze's shelf for a moment. "Give me a glass of whatever she's having."

That request was enough to bring the usual pep back to her pale face. "Oho! Are you sure? It's rather stout whiskey."

"One glass ain't gonna hurt," he replied with a grin. "Besides, I could use the buzz. Talking to the police in this Kingdom is a real headache."


	12. Voices of Remnant

"I swear, this stupid thing hasn't been working right all week."

Yang looked over as an agitated Weiss glared at her Scroll, so incensed that she appeared ready to throw it across the dining hall. "Why, what did you do to it?" were the first words out of her mouth. She only grinned at the annoyed look that was Weiss' initial answer.

" _I_ didn't do anything to it!" she finally snapped. Both girls looked up as Ruby finally arrived with a tray containing her lunch. "What in the name of the gods is that awful concoction on your plate?" she asked, brow raised.

The item in question was a glistening pile of some sort of reddish-brown, chunky, _stuff_ with a bread roll on the side, plus some greens. While it looked terrible, it emitted a pleasant, smoky, vaguely sweet aroma. "What? Never seen Valesian barbecue before?"

"It looks revolting." She leaned over slightly to take a sniff and blinked at the scent. "...hmm."

Ruby proceeded to build herself a sandwich out of it and the roll. "Try some. They gave me waaaaay too much." After Weiss hesitated, then withdrew, her eyes went to the empty space beside Yang. "Your loss. Um… where's Blake?"

"I dunno." Yang rested her chin on one hand with a sigh. "Do you get the feeling she's been, like, avoiding us for some reason?"

"She hasn't seemed right since Mandag," Ruby answered with her mouth full. "I don't wanna confront her head on about it, that would just make it worse. I think. I'm not sure what to do."

The blonde's eyes grew distant. "I could try to talk to her, I guess."

The heiress' attention wandered back to her Scroll for a moment as a call came in — from the person she least wanted to converse with, but she answered it anyway. "Yes, father, hello." Crackling static stabbed her ear for a moment. "Hold on, please." She rose from the bench and mumbled to her teammates, "I'll be right back," before taking her leave and moving outside to find a quieter space. A beautiful, clear noon sky greeted her as she exited the hall and walked carefully down its wide steps. "All right, let's try again."

"Your mother and I are curious about why you've failed to respond to our messages lately," Jacques stated. "I do hope you're not giving us the cold shoulder."

As tempting as the idea was, Weiss hadn't yet reached that stage; she wanted to milk this bastard for everything she could before crushing him from a position of strength later — and, besides, she'd never ignore her mother. The fact that they'd been as unable to contact her as she was them made her eyes bulge with surprise. "You've been messaging me? I've been messaging you. I thought everyone was busy."

"Strange. Trouble with Vale's CCT equipment? I've heard they're still on the last-generation technology. Perhaps it's time they moved on like the rest of us."

"Miss Goodwitch did say there were problems…" Weiss' brow furrowed a bit. "One of my teammates is having issues with her Scroll too, how odd." Thinking of Blake dragged her mind back to the Velvet situation, of course, but there was no way she could let that slip while on the Scroll with _him_. It would be pointless — plus she didn't need the added tension on top of an approaching trial and Blake's sudden emotional withdrawal from her team.

"You're quite literally living under a CCT tower and you still have worse connectivity than we do. Typical Vale. I honestly don't see how the Kingdom has survived for this long."

"Sheer stubbornness," Weiss remarked, injecting just enough false derision into her words to match his. "How is mother?"

"Irritable, as ever." A long pause. "I've got to be going. Business. We'll speak again later."

"Very well." The moment she hung up, Weiss, mimed a gagging motion and tucked her Scroll away. "I wish you'd get struck down and save all of us the trouble." Before she could turn to head back into the dining hall, however, she saw a face which brightened and dampened her mood simultaneously. "Blake!" she called, prancing down the remainder of the stairs and walking over to her. "Where have you been?"

One look was all she could manage before Blake had to avert her gaze momentarily. "In the meditation hall. I needed a minute."

"Again?" Weiss' blue eyes dimmed with worry. "You've been going a lot this week. What happened?"

"It's…" Blake's feline ears flattened against her head for a moment. "It's nothing."

"You're an awful liar." Weiss placed both hands on her hips with a frown. "It's Velvet, isn't it? What happened that night?" Her mood soured when the Faunus continued to dodge eye contact. "Look at me! You've barely spoken to me all week! I'd like to know what I did!"

She chose the worst option: silence, then an attempt to push past Weiss and the conversation. The heiress was much too quick for that to work. "I can't—!" she initially said, much louder than intended, before she regained control of her tone. "I can't tell you."

Her thin white eyebrow raised. "You _can't_ tell me?"

"I can't." Blake, hands wringing, continued to direct her sight in all directions but at her teammate. "I… I can't tell anyone."

Weiss' stern face softened with worry. Bags were still apparent under Blake's yellow eyes — her whole frame was bent with exhaustion. "If it's bothering you this much, then let us help you share that burden. Please."

"I was specifically told not to."

"By whom?!" was the huffy retort.

"By Miss Goodwitch." The fall of that hammer stunned Weiss long enough for Blake to finally slip past her and walk toward the dining hall.

But only for a few steps. "Why would she… Blake? Blake!" Weiss called, falling in by her left side, "Did Velvet tell you something else?" She found her mind racing again, much like it had the morning she first talked about the matrix code system. "Blake, please, if this has something to do with the company — my family — I have a right to know."

"I'm sorry, Weiss. I can't." They were now at the top of the steps; she opened the door and entered quickly in order to preclude further discussion by the enforced presence of strange ears. Weiss lagged some distance behind thanks to Blake's quick steps — she reached Ruby and Yang a solid five seconds before the heiress did.

"Hey, there you are," Yang greeted, scooting aside and patting the bench space she'd just left for Blake to sit down. "Where'd you go?"

Blake accepted her hospitality, nearly falling onto the bench in the process. "Just the meditation hall. I tried to trick myself into a nap." She rubbed gently at her tired eyes. "It… didn't work."

Ruby loosed a tepid chuckle at this before Weiss sat down beside her without a word, her face somewhere between a mild pout and a silently-proclaimed wish to burst into tears. "Are you okay?" she asked, conditioned to ask the question more strongly than she was conditioned to expect nothing but annoyance in response.

Weiss couldn't dig out her usual sting, however, and sighed a "Not really," instead, which left her leader on the back foot and silent for a few seconds. Even Yang took notice, blinking her lilac eyes at both the heiress and the Faunus.

And she was the one that took charge. "Okay, look, what's goin' on here?" she asked, resting her elbows on the table and leaning forward. Answers weren't forthcoming from either party, both of whom seemed content to avert their gazes with frowns. While this silent treatment might have stalled her sister into letting the subject go — as it so often seemed to — Yang was a different beast. "You're not giving me this silent treatment bullshit," she said, her brows knitted dangerously. "Speak up."

"Yaaaaaang, don't be mean," Ruby said quietly. "Maybe you shouldn't _force_ it—" A raised, gloved hand from her sister shut her up. She wasn't in command at the moment.

"It's about my friend Velvet," Blake admitted after an eternity spent failing to find any way past the blonde's direct challenge. "I don't think any of you have met her besides Weiss. She's a, well, she works here as a janitor, I guess. And she's a Faunus with rabbit ears."

"Right," Yang urged, dulling her unhappy expression in appreciation of the progress. "What's up with her?"

Silence again, this time a shared affair between Weiss and Blake instead of two unhappy tranquilities borne upon their individual shoulders. They stared at each other for a moment. "It's complicated," the heiress offered.

Yang raised up and pointed at her cheeks with two fingers. "This is my 'I don't care face'." Nothing. Anger stained her eyes again. "Listen, we're going back out there in a couple of days. We all need to be on the same fucking page before we do. So _somebody talk_."

"We've been told not to," Blake whispered at last.

"By who?" Her mood prepared to shift based on whatever answer came next: if it was Velvet, then sure, she'd talk to the girl out respect for her being Blake's friend. If it was some _other_ student, then Yang was already beyond prepared to _correct_ whoever was forcing them to hold secrets. A physical confrontation might be the worst possible outcome, but at least it would give her something to punch instead of watching her teammates squirm under the weight of chains she couldn't even see. Her fists clenched instinctually. "Well? Who?"

Weiss, voice so reluctant and small that she sounded like a stranger whom none of them knew, provided what truth she had when Blake failed to cough up the ready excuse given her by the Assistant Headmaster that awful morning. "Miss Goodwitch."

Yang's hands unfurled as her mouth parted with surprise, which resulted in an expression not unlike the one Ruby also now wore. The sisters exchanged several uncertain glances. "Wait. For real? Teachers are always the ones asking us if _we're_ hiding anything, not asking us to hide shit."

"Yeah," Ruby chimed in. "Signal's teachers — dad included, all the time, no matter _what I told him_ — always checked if there was anything I needed to tell them—" A spark of realization sizzled through her brain. "Unless. This thing about Velvet… was it—was it really bad?" Only Blake managed to reply, and that answer was merely a single nod. "Oh. Uh," she looked toward Yang in search of advice about how to proceed and found her sister at an equal loss. "Wh-what should we do?"

"I don't know." Yang looked up as Pyrrha and Nora drew near with trays in their hands. An absolute pile of food existed on the latter's plate, so voluminous she could barely control it.

"Hello!" called the chipper redhead as she took a seat on Ruby's other side.

The blonde waved at them both. "Yo. Where are the boys?"

Mild amusement lit up Pyrrha's face. "We just came from the gym. Our workout regimen was a little more than they could handle, so they went to rest." Only now did she realize the presence of the uncomfortable cloud which hung over the four members of Ruby's team. "Ah… are we interrupting something?"

Nora only caught on to the problem when Pyrrha spoke those words, and that was well after she'd sat down next to Blake and started to shove bread and meat into her mouth. "Huh?" was the only sound she could get out past all the food headed the other way down her throat.

"Ummmm…" Ruby's eyes darted from Yang, then to Pyrrha, to Blake, to Weiss, in all sorts of barely-controlled combinations as she tried to figure out what to say next. She made a judgment call that, if her team was going to be with the redhead's crew for this trial, then they had a right to know the whole situation. "Um, we've got a little problem," she mumbled, keen to prevent the sparse crowd from hearing anything about it, "Blake has this friend, Velvet, right? A rabbit Faunus—"

"Oh, I believe I've seen her once or twice," Pyrrha said, tapping her chin. "She seems rather shy."

Blake screwed up her resolve and inserted herself into the exchange with a deep breath. "You have no idea. Look, we found out some things about Velvet that aren't, well, _nice_. But Miss Goodwitch made it clear to us that we can't say anything about it." She ignored Weiss' icy gaze and smiled at a startled Pyrrha instead. "We're just struggling to deal with it, I guess."

"Some of us more than others," the heiress added under her breath.

Nora had much the same reaction as Ruby and Yang: surprise. "Really? I mean, I guess we all hide stuff, but I've never had a teacher tell me I had to shut up," she stated, head cocked — and another bread roll in her hand, ready for consumption if nobody else spoke within the next fraction of a nanosecond. "Then again, if it's like, suuuuuuuuper terrible, then yeah. What if you went to the chapel and had your own little release ceremony? Scream it at the icon! Always works for me!"

An outlet presented itself at last; and though addressing it would throw them all into a different unpleasant quagmire, at least it would give Blake's desperate mind something _different_ to think about for a minute. "That ceremony. I don't get it. You all said some awful things and they've _never_ come up again. I don't understand why."

Yet the awkwardness she expected wasn't present on any of their faces. Only confusion existed thereupon, quizzical in Nora's brilliant eyes, innocent on Ruby's face, gentle and reserved on Pyrrha's. It left Blake speechless yet again.

"That's how we've always done it," Yang said after a while. "Ever since we can remember."

"But—" The Faunus hunched forward and hid her eyes with one hand. "That's not how _we_ do it. Now I'm being asked to keep secrets when it's something I've never needed to do before."

Recalling something from Ozpin's welcome speech about strangers in strange lands, Ruby's cheeks tinged red with shame as she realized that she'd failed in at least one aspect of leadership — a blush which only deepened the more she thought. Bravery she owned in spades, but that iron spine tended to melt in the face of one-on-one conversation with people other than her sister. It was a trait which needed adjustment — not only for Blake's sake, but for her team's as a whole — and that, she decided, began now. Without a word, she stood up, tore around the table as a crimson smear, and latched onto Blake with a hug from behind.

At first, the Faunus could only squeak with surprise. "Ah! Um, Ruby?" she added after a second, trying to look at the girl over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I should have asked — er, not asked, um, pushed you? I…" Ruby struggled with the appropriate words until one snapped into her mouth. "Challenged you more? It's kinda my job to make sure you feel like you fit in. I didn't do that very well. I just—I guess that's what happens when two, um..."

"Introverts?" Pyrrha offered.

"Yeah!" Ruby waved a thank you. "When two introverts get together. It's not easy for them to talk, huh. Whoops. I should have asked you more about how Faunus culture really works, but I didn't wanna shine a spotlight on you. You're not really a spotlight kinda person. Me either. It's cool."

She blinked at this, then at the smiles which arrived on most of their faces — Yang, especially, seemed ready to burst with pride — although Weiss' expression remained quite stony. "You're not entirely wrong. I guess I didn't help much. I'm not really used to living with a bunch of people. I don't have any siblings, and, well, being on a team like this? That's totally new to me."

"It's okay!" Ruby released her embrace, then sat as Nora made space between herself and Blake. "I've never been a leader before either. We can learn together!" She glanced over as Weiss gagged at the motherly love pouring from her sister's toothy smile, but couldn't match that grin as her internal momentum started to fail. "I'm not sure what we can do about _this_ , though. If it's so bad Miss Goodwitch doesn't want anyone else to know, then, frick. We're kinda stuck. If it spreads, we could put everyone in danger."

"So I have to deal with this alone?" an unhappy Blake asked.

Yang reassured her with a heavy pat on the shoulder, which drew a grunt from the Faunus' lips. "What? Nah, man, we're all here with you. We'll handle it together." Continued silence from Weiss finally drew her attention. " _Together_."

"Yes," she agreed after a moment. "Together."

"Right. Together." Tiredness caught up with Blake again; she rested her arms on the table, then her chin on top of those, and loosed a sigh. "I have to find some way to let this go, otherwise I'm going to get us all killed on Fraidich. Maybe I should ask to withdraw from the trial?"

"...but we're gonna need you to help us see in the dark," Nora pointed out after demolishing another roll. "Unless we can ask for those weird goggles. Hey, can we buy low-light goggles from your skinny hat friend?" she asked Pyrrha.

"I… doubt it," she replied, waving both hands with a smile. "We can just use our Scrolls for light, regardless. Don't feel pressured to fight if you're worried you might cause more harm than good, we'll be fine."

A glowering Weiss folded her arms. "Even if that light tells the Grimm where we are?"

"We will get to that," Ruby interjected firmly, desperate to keep Blake from falling back down into her unhappiness. "Right now it's about Blake." She abruptly dashed around the table again and ended up snuggled against Weiss — somewhat on purpose. "And Weiss!"

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at the look on the heiress' face between bites of her salad. "Stop cuddling me," she warned her leader.

"No!" That resolve faded a bit as Weiss continued to glare down at her. "...no?" she offered again. "Excuse me, you've been bottling up things too. Stop it. Talk to us!"

"Perhaps after Blake and I hash out this situation with Velvet? One thing at a time, after all."

"Wh—" the Faunus blurted out, raising her head. The dangerous shine in her eyes indicated just how little she appreciated being cornered — it wouldn't be _her_ fault if Weiss got on Ruby's nerves for bottling up her issues. "There's nothing else to be hashed out," she replied quietly.

Yang decided to help her sister before this could turn into an argument. "All right, look, you two get outta here and say whatever you need to say to each other." She expected Blake's surprised look — after all, it did seem like the blonde had come down on Weiss' side — and smiled at her. "You need to be on the same side of this… whatever it is, first. Then we can work on Weiss being so Weiss-y."

"What does that even mean?!" she fired back, arms crossed as Ruby continued to try and hug her fruitlessly. The heiress finally rejected her with a hand on the forehead and a solid push backward — Pyrrha used her Semblance on the magnetic hardpoint on Ruby's dress to keep her from falling off the bench.

Blake ignored their antics and decided it would be better to get this over with now than add it to the pile of things she was already trying to ignore or deal with. "All right, fine. Where should we go?"

"The chapel might not be a bad idea," the redhead suggested. "That side of campus is usually empty this time of day and it's closer than the dorms." Her face screwed up worriedly as Nora grinned at her tray. "I'm sorry, you can't have my bread. I've been looking forward to these rolls all morning."

"Arm wrestle you for it," the fiery girl replied, positioning her right arm on the table, hand open and ready. "Come on."

"Ahhhhhh—?"

Blake and Weiss rose from their seats and walked toward the exit, ignoring Yang's playful encouragement for Nora and Pyrrha to show their strength. While the two girls walked loosely side-by-side, neither spoke — not even after they got back outside. They spent the brief trek across Beacon's campus in silence as well, feline ears flicking with stress, or brows knitted with worry, depending at which girl you looked. The chapel's outer skin gleamed in the late summer sun as they walked toward it.

"What did Velvet tell you that night?" Weiss finally inquired, her words almost a whisper. She knew Blake would hear them anyway.

Her yellow eyes narrowed slightly. "It isn't my place to tell you." She entered the empty chapel first. Most of the lighting was on its lowest level, which made the place even darker than it had been for the release ceremony. The brightest glow was focused on the icon of the two gods holding up Remnant at the far end of the room. Scant amounts of daylight leaked in through the intricate rainbow stained-glass veins above their heads. They faced each other about halfway down the main aisle, waiting for one of them to start the argument, but neither could muster the will to shout in so solemn a place.

"I have a right to know, Blake," Weiss repeated after an eternity wandered by.

She threw up her arms momentarily and turned away. "My hands are tied."

"Give me _some_ idea," she pleaded, following on anxious strides as Blake walked toward the icon. "I need to know! Don't you trust me? I nearly dislocated my shoulder to save you!"

"It's not about trust, it's…" A headache began to stalk her skull; she paused to rub at her forehead, keeping her back to Weiss. This distraction caused her to say the wrong thing. "You don't deserve to hear what I—" Her eyes snapped open when she heard the heiress stomp around to face her again, eyes aflame with insulted rage. "That's not what I meant. Weiss. That's not what I meant."

Barely, _barely_ , she managed to restrain herself before some terrible barb flung itself from her throat, hissing a "Then explain," instead.

"It was so bad that I wouldn't want my worst enemy to know about it, much less a friend like you."

This not only drove her back from the edge emotionally, but it actually forced her to take a physical step as well. "I… I appreciate the sentiment." Her eyes closed so she could focus on regaining control of her breath. "But if it's that awful, then I really do need to know."

Hands on her hips, Blake fired back, "Why is it _so_ important that you know?"

"For the same reason you'd want to know if something potentially terrible could ruin your family name!" Unintentionally, she'd yelled this, her voice buoyed by the overriding need to protect the Schnee legacy from _him_ which drove her to Beacon in the first place. Her face turned apologetic once she registered Blake's wide-eyed surprise. "Blake, please."

They were stuck now, circling each other like reluctant sharks. The Faunus examined her resolve and found it steely, even now. "Like I said, it's not my place. Velvet told me these things in confidence and… even if I'm not used to keeping secrets, I will, with or without Miss Goodwitch telling me what to do."

It was Weiss' chance to turn her back on Blake, though only for a moment. "Then we've reached an impasse."

Her ears flattened sadly. "I guess so. I'm sorry. I don't want this either."

"No, I understand." The smile she wore now was best described as professional — and somewhat tight. "No point in treading over the same old ground, repeatedly. Let's go back." She cast a glance up at the icon, then at Blake. "Actually… give me a moment, would you? I need to think. To pray."

Blake nodded once at her, relief that the exchange was over clearly evident in her slight smile. "All right. I'll meet you back in the dining hall?"

Weiss smiled again. "Of course."

She watched the Faunus go until she exited the chapel and disappeared out of sight down the staircase. All pleasantries left her visage as she regarded the icon once more, taking a few uncertain steps toward it while plotting her next move. "I can't force Blake to do anything," she whispered. "I shouldn't. She _is_ my friend." Her icy eyes began to narrow with the contemplation of a new idea. "No… why bother her about it when I can just go straight to the source instead?"

* * *

Another day, another Lien, another delivery run to Beacon for Opher. He wasn't alone in here; another male courier occupied the jumpseat across the cargo bay from him. Together, their combined load totaled four pallets of Dust and various other items, though these weren't stacked nearly as high as the ones in the emergency order he'd helped wrangle last weekend. Opher was currently in the middle of a conversation with Schwarze on his Scroll — a chat made easier thanks to the engines only being at half power as the vessel navigated thick civilian and government traffic over the city of Vale.

"She's been on my ass about this for two days already, why is she asking you to pile on too?" he asked, ignoring the curious look of his traveling companion across the way.

"Because we are worried!" This may as well have been a whine.

"Schwarze, nothing happened." He'd said those two words about a dozen times that day alone in response to some concern or inquiry from his boss. "You two are way more concerned about this than I am. Can I get moved into my new apartment first? Then I can look for a therapist."

"Cutie, this isn't something you should procrastinate about. With? Procrastinate with? Hrm…" A beat passed before she regained her focus. "Just _call_ some of those numbers. Please. She only wants the best for you. We both do."

He rubbed at his eyes with a tiny sigh. "Well, you're seeing one. What about them?"

Oddly nervous laughter prefaced her denial. "Ah, well, she's not exactly accepting new clients at the moment…"

While his brow lifted slightly at the noise, he chose not to address it and issued a "Huh," instead. "I know there's that one office near your apartment block. I'll try them when I land." He frowned out the window. "If we ever land. Seems like it's taking forever for us to get anywhere."

"Oh, yes, there's a fire down at the docks. Some of the airspace is probably closed while they deploy the—oh, never mind, I'm getting off topic." The clacking together of some kind of dishes reached his ears after this, then another whine. "Promise me you'll call when you land."

"You're like a kid, you know that?" Not that he minded; she was rather cute when her voice reached this pitch. It was mostly to guarantee a reduction of heat from Indigo when he got back that he relented to her demands. "I promise. Okay?"

"Good! I have to go now, the rush is starting. See you later, cutie!"

"Uh huh. Bye." Opher hung up and tucked his Scroll away, mumbling, "Rush, my ass, I only ever see the same seven or eight people in your pub and three of them are us." His face suddenly went blank. "...huh."

Before he could think too much on it, the airship's engines finally spooled up to full thrust and the vessel was on its way. This time was spent watching the load on the pallets sway gently to and fro depending on which way the airship banked, as well as watching the other courier, who seemed more occupied with his Scroll than anything else. The pilot came over the intercom, startling both men. "Make sure you guys are buckled up back there," she advised, "The Air Force is engaged with some Nevermores about a click north of us and I may need to book it outta here."

"Acknowledged!" Opher shouted – he was already busy strapping himself in.

"Got it!" yelled the other courier.

While neither could see any of the giant black birds through the small windows, Opher caught a fleeting glimpse of a Bullhead as it streaked past to join the fight. That was the only hint of conflict visible for the rest of the trip; after a few more minutes of uneventful flying, the bird sat down easily on Beacon's pad two and allowed its cargo doors and ramp to open. They were parked with the rear of the vessel pointed toward campus. The pilot poked her head back through the open cockpit door as they began the process of unlatching the cargo pallets. "I'm gonna wait until the military's done with their operation, so take your time. If you wouldn't mind, clear the hold so I can close the doors and keep it cool in here."

"Fine," said the other courier. Together, he and Opher used the ship's pallet jacks to ferry their pallets out of the ship and onto the pad to either side. Once finished, he slapped the left-hand cargo door three times and stepped out of the way as the ramp withdrew and the doors flipped shut. "I always like it when there's no rush. You new? Don't think I've seen you before."

"Sort of. I've been out here a couple of times already." Opher stared down the manifest on his Scroll without expression. Noise, distant and at his back – some of which seemed like the report of gunfire – eventually forced his eyes up to investigate. He had to walk around the airship a few steps to see its source; half a dozen gigantic black birds swirled in the air over Beacon Lake, tangled up with dozens of Bullheads and two larger vessels which were somewhat familiar to him as a class of warship the Atlesian military used, but with different paint schemes and super-firing gun turrets atop their hulls. As he watched, those large-caliber guns fired and blew one of the wings right off a Nevermore. "Oh. There's the fight."

"Yep," the other courier said, mopping sweat from his brow. "Those birds show up a lot in the fall. See those big ships? They're frigates the Queen bought from Atlas. If they're that good, maybe she should get some more."

"Hmm." Having seen his fill of the battle, Opher grabbed his first pallet and moved toward the campus to dispense its bounty. Once he put enough distance between himself and the other courier, he produced his Scroll to keep his promise to Schwarze. Managing its screen with one hand while he dragged a fairly hefty load with the other wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but he finally found the number he wanted and dialed it.

"Hello!" said an extremely cheerful female receptionist as he passed by the courtyard statue on his way toward the dorm complex. "You've reached the office of Doctor Cynthia Ives, certified therapist. How might I help you?"

Her squeaky voice threw him off a little – and left a subtle ringing in his left ear. "Uh, yes, hello. I'm about to move into the neighborhood and I was wondering if your office was accepting new clients?"

As their conversation got rolling, Opher failed to notice the look of utter confusion on the face of an orange-haired girl with a huge pink hair bow that walked by him; he was also oblivious to the fact that she pursued, hiding behind his pallet as he tugged it toward its destination. This earned her a confused looked from the other courier, who'd caught up somewhat as Opher struggled with using his Scroll. "Don't mind me!" she called, waving to him – loud enough for Opher to hear her, come to an abrupt stop, and cause her to bump heavily into his pallet of Dust. "Ah! Oops." She peered at him from over the stack of items and stared.

"Are you following me?" he asked, Scroll still to his ear. An inquiry from it caused his focus to depart for a moment. "No, not you, obviously, there's… it's not important. Can I call you back in a little bit?" He nodded, hung up, and directed his attention to Penny as she walked around to meet him.

"Pardon me," were her first words after arrival. Now she knew his voice – the same man Ruby and Pyrrha had been speaking with after the second trial – and was keenly interested in something else her sensors were picking up. Or, rather, something they failed to detect at all: the presence of any measurable amount of Aura. Even at this close distance, not even a meter apart, she couldn't pick up any trace of it whatsoever. "I was just wondering if you had any items in here for me. I'm a student. Penny!"

"Uh..." Opher cast a look down at the shrink-wrapped stack and scratched under his hat for a moment. "Penny. Polendina?" She nodded energetically at him. "Not on this pallet." He pointed back toward the airship pad, where his second pallet awaited retrieval.

Penny tilted her head. "I see." She then failed to move or speak again afterward until she detected the perplexed look on his face. "Oh, yes, right. I'm sorry. I'll get out of the way."

So he trundled on, grunting once with the effort needed to get his load moving from a stand still – and all the while, Penny walked with him, smiling but quiet as she continued to run error checks on her Aura sensor suite. Not thirty seconds later, she saw Ciel – in the middle of looking for her android charge with no small amount of worry on her bronze face – and the girl walked quickly over to join her. "Where have you been?" she scolded gently.

"I wanted to get some fresh air!" she replied cheerfully. Now both girls walked with him as if they were all part of the same little group. Penny had a new problem: she could detect Ciel's Aura just fine, but in the eyes of her sensors, Opher's continued not to exist. One processor core in her metal skull proceeded to open and write data to an error log.

"Are you _b_ _oth_ following me?" he finally asked, staring back at them over his shoulder.

Ciel came to such an abrupt stop that her beret nearly fell off, but Penny kept on walking. "I believe we're just heading in the same direction as you," the android pointed out cheerfully. "At least for now." She looked back as her partner darted over to catch up with them. "Why did you stop?"

"I thought he wanted us to stop following him."

"I did, kinda." He'd reached his destination now, however, and turned to enter dorm building 3 with his pallet in tow. Sure enough, both girls pursued him. "Which apparently isn't going to happen." On top of all this, as they reached the front door, Pyrrha poked her brilliant red head out of their dorm window, above and to the right of the entrance, to stare down at him and his would-be companions. "This is about to get so much dumber," he muttered, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

"I'll get the door for you!" Penny skipped ahead and pushed the portals open. Ciel cut in front of him too, and together the girls held both doors open as Opher tugged his cargo into the lobby. By the time he got it into an out-of-the-way spot by the stairs and began to cut off the shrink-wrap which secured its items, Pyrrha came prancing down the steps alone.

"Good afternoon!" she said politely. Why Penny and Ciel were here, she had no idea, but they also received friendly smiles. "Ah, hello. You have orders too?"

"Oh, yes. But we have to wait for them for a moment." The android had a chance to check her Aura sensors again with Pyrrha's arrival and found no anomalies with their detection, although the redhead's Aura was somewhat larger and more intense than what her database told her would be the expected output for an Academy student. Her glass eyes widened as programmed when she needed to act like she'd just had an idea. "Oh, what if we went and got the other pallet for you? I bet Pyrrha and I could lift it ourselves."

Two seconds later, Opher shot her down. "No. My boss would never let me hear the end of it and I can't leave until the military is done over Beacon Lake anyway," he said as he yanked free the last of the clear wrap. This he balled up into a lumpy sphere, which he then tossed easily into a nearby trash can. "I'm not in that big of a hurry." Through the door he went again with the jack to go get the other pallet.

"Excuse me," said Pyrrha, smiling. She followed him out a second later.

Ciel, hands on her hips, turned to her partner with a light frown. "What were you doing with him?"

"He's the one that helped Ruby and her friends." Her pupils dilated and shrank individually in seemingly random patterns as she tracked their retreat in infra-red, until the combination of the stone wall and the high ambient air temperature outside defeated her sensors. "I think something might be wrong with my sensor suite."

"What?" Ciel's frown grew deeper and more worried. "Why?"

"I… couldn't detect his Aura at _all_." Penny continued to stare at the point where she'd lost contact with him and Pyrrha – which would have appeared as a random point in the wall to an uneducated observer. Finally, her eyes went to Ciel. "I detected yours just fine. Pyrrha Nikos' too. Not his."

The implications of this tumbled about in Ciel's mind. Her stare became distant. "What do you think it means?"

"I don't know." Penny directed one of the NICs in her hair bow to send an encrypted message to the transmission equipment at the top of Beacon Tower. "But I'm going to send an error log and elevate his inquiry priority with the Colonel. Just in case."

Meanwhile, outside, an ever-grumpier Opher found himself being pursued down the main walkway in the most gracious manner he'd ever seen by Pyrrha, hands clasped in front of her and smiling every step of the way. Her long ponytail fluttered like a pennant in the summer breeze; the longer he looked at her, the more she resembled…

" _Why_ are _you_ following me?" he blurted out defensively before his thoughts could travel too far down that dead end. "Don't you have classes or something?"

"They've ended for the day, so I thought we might have a nice little chat." She regarded his unenthusiastic gaze with another smile. "We're heading out into the field again Fraidich night."

Opher directed his dull green eyes ahead with a ghostly frown. "I know."

"You do?"

"Yeah, because I'm gonna be here." The rhythmic creaking of her gold armor as she walked skipped a cycle, after which it returned with a quickened pace when she moved to catch back up. The surprise on her face when he looked back finally elicited a smirk – he had some idea what she was thinking, but said nothing and chose to make her vocalize it if she dared.

She didn't, remaining coy and polite instead. "Whatever for?"

"The administration wants all of the merchants out here for a meeting ahead of the arrival of all the new kids next week. Indigo somehow talked me into going." They had reached the airship by now; the conversation died for a moment while he got the jack underneath the second pallet and lifted it up. "Before you even say it, no. I'm gonna be stuck on campus."

If there was any disappointment or nervousness in her heart, the redhead's face betrayed none of it. That smile never wavered. She hesitated for a moment, lost in watching the battle between Vale's Air Force and the Nevermores over Beacon Lake. "I see. Upperclassmen are going with us this time, we'll be all right," she promised him, falling back in as he hauled his cargo toward the dorms. "Yang is still interested in learning from you."

And he still had no idea how he might translate or contort his experience into something a modern human would be able to grasp, much less comprehend fully enough to deploy in combat. His brow furrowed lightly in thought. Dust, perhaps, could be one potential answer, but the current generation was so far removed from its actual nature that the genesis of magic made crystal might still cause serious upheaval to their current view of Remnant. Come to think of it, almost _all_ of his knowledge fell into that category. At this thought, his brow furrowed more.

"Is… that a no?" Pyrrha asked awkwardly, limited to interpreting his expression since he failed to speak.

Trying to reconcile Carmine's doppelganger with Pyrrha's lack of experience caused his face to screw up briefly. "I'm thinking," he said as they passed under the arches of the courtyard nearest to the dorm complex. Even a _starting_ point for any potential lesson eluded him so completely that it also stole his ability to speak, so they walked toward dorm building four in silence until, suddenly, he stopped on the walkway near its front door and turned to look at her.

"Yes?" she said, head slightly cocked, her smile etched in stone.

Opher doffed his hat – not in response to any heat, as even in the sweltering air his face and hands were completely devoid of sweat, but simply just to think a little better. He crammed it into one of his front pants pockets. "You said you can detect Aura, didn't you?"

Her polite face became slightly contemplative. "I did."

If she could feel that, then certainly she could feel _it_. He leaned on the handle of the pallet jack with both hands and gazed at her. "Have you ever felt something _like_ Aura, but it was everywhere? Like..." A proper comparison evaded him for a second. "Sunshine. Sunshine that follows you indoors and at night."

Unbeknownst to him, he'd nailed the analogy so hard that the redhead's mind flooded with memories of the first time she'd felt that sensation. A dark-paneled room in a mansion in Argus, in the dead of winter, at night – she was merely a child in that four-poster bed, unable to sleep because of the constant registration of what her nervous system and skin told her was some kind of warmth that wasn't coming from the Dust-fueled climate system in her giant house. Gone was Pyrrha's standard expression in exchange for genuine, deep surprise. "How could you possibly know… I was nine or ten, just learning how to detect my own Aura. It flooded my mind but it was so _faint_. I couldn't figure out what to compare it to at first, but you're right. It was like sunshine on my skin." Her shock faded back into her usual smile. "I learned later that I'd been picking up the planet's magnetosphere. I eventually figured out how to ignore it." She blinked when he snorted at this. "What?"

Her experience might have been the closest any human on Remnant had come in centuries to conversing with the genuine voice of the gods – but she'd learned _how to ignore it_. And while it wasn't a check mark for or against her potential heritage – Opher once knew many with Semblances like hers who could feel the planet's embrace too – it was an interesting tidbit to mull over. "Magnetosphere?" he added after another laugh.

A confused Pyrrha used her power to thrust open the doors to the dormitory when he pushed the pallet forward again. "I'm not sure why this is funny." Penny and Ciel were waiting in the lobby as they entered. Though his projected Aura overwhelmed theirs, she could still detect both girls' fields to various degrees, especially as they closed the distance. Penny's was remarkably uniform in shape, while Ciel's Aura wasn't notable in any respect.

Still grinning, Opher set the pallet down and looked at the two girls. "You two can get your stuff off of this. I'm just gonna leave it here for a minute." He then waved at Pyrrha to follow him back outside.

"As you wish!" Penny again watched them go with a smile as Ciel began to search the boxes for her Dust.

They got to the main walkway before Pyrrha could no longer stifle her curiosity. "What's going on here?" she asked Opher as they walked away from the dorm.

"Is there somewhere we can talk without anyone bothering us?" He waved a hand at the students who were milling about near the dining hall and the library. "And I do mean _anyone_."

"Ah…?" Harsh sunlight reflected off the chapel gave her an idea. "Yes, follow me," she said, walking toward it on quick strides. She beat him up the stairs by a mile and peeked in through the front doors as he squinted and made faces at the building's unusual architecture. "It's empty," she called back down to him.

They entered its solemn embrace together. Nothing about its dim interior mattered to him but the presence of the icon at the far end, which grabbed his attention the moment he saw it and held on so completely that he forgot why he'd come here in the first place. Pyrrha followed his gaze toward the statues, assumed – based on the startling reverie in his green eyes – that he was deeply religious, and executed the same prayer stance Yang and Ruby did as they were finding seats for the release ceremony. After she'd finished this, however, she found Opher still locked in a staring contest with the representation of the two gods. "Um… Opher? Are you all right?"

Not even close. Through Herculean effort he tugged himself back into the present and walked slowly down the aisle with Pyrrha in tow. Some things about the present were, for him, easy to comprehend, even to accept – what used to be called magic was now parked under the umbrella of science and could partially be blamed on the rapid advancement of the two sentient species, such as airships. So people needed metal boxes to fly these days; a part of him expected this, given the ever-increasing gap of time between each generation and the unimaginable genesis responsible for their existence. Even Kingdoms could be interpreted as the natural progression of the villages left behind after the global devastation of the war before, though Opher had no idea why only four of them, plus the demi-Kingdoms of Argus and Patch, as well as the Faunus enclave of Menagerie, currently existed with all the powers granted by Dust. Falling into this category was the language, which vocally resembled – to some extent, at least – what he was used to in the time just before Carmine, despite the visual appearance of the written word not being in the same galaxy as the original script which he'd seared into his left arm. These were all things he expected. Things to which he could adjust.

What that icon represented did not occupy either list. These weren't what the gods looked like. They weren't polished, yellow or purple, vaguely-human shapes with no features, almost ten meters tall – facts he knew because he had laid eyes upon them himself, on multiple occasions. Yet, now, it finally hit him – _so_ much time had passed that his species had finally managed to outlive its own birthday. To forget its own parents. Opher's lifespan now eclipsed history. What color usually occupied his cheeks drained away – for once, the man actually looked ill about something.

Awkward throat-clearing from Pyrrha snapped Opher back into the moment again. He regarded her with a hollow gaze; how would he explain _anything_ to people like this? Then again, if anyone had a chance to understand, it would be _her_ descendant, so the situation became part of another test. "Explain to me what the magnetosphere is."

"Oh, ah, well," she offered uncertainly, startled by the awful distance in his eyes. "Actually, I believe it's more appropriately referred to as the geomagnetic field, and it-"

The mere presence of the prefix _geo_ was a relief in itself; three little letters, all of which existed in their true forms in the writing on his left arm. In fact, one was barely visible on the back of his hand, peeking out from under his long yellow sleeve. "Geo?" he interjected, curious to hear what the modern interpretation of the word was. "What's that mean?"

She could not figure out where in the hell this conversation was going; the longer it dragged on, the harder it became for her to maintain her usual polite demeanor. He didn't strike her as uneducated, but his questions weren't the type she expected from anyone that had gone through any sort of Academy training. Perhaps he wasn't a Huntsman, then, which only made his skills even harder to explain. "It's-it's the prefix which, ah, alludes to the planet. Geology. Geography. Things like that."

Opher smiled a bit, relieved to see one fragment of truth had survived the battering of time. "Oh." Then he poked the idea with a different stick to see if, by some chance, more information also managed to follow him through these infinite decades. "Where does it come from?"

Pyrrha finally lost her battle to remain polite; her expression became utterly perplexed, though the smile, now awkward, remained. "I'm not sure?" She blinked when Opher turned his back on her and walked a few steps closer to the icon. He was content to let it go – if she didn't know, then she didn't know, and that was fine. However, she added a few uncomfortable seconds later, "I would imagine it's like a lot of our language. The etymology is just, well, lost to the Grimm."

Further confirmation that the war before was still killing. People, cultures, words, all finding their graves automatically, without external input – a perfectly autonomous conflict, one of the few things as enduring as his bipedal prison. Hand on hip, Opher turned to face Pyrrha again. "Yeah," he said, tone unreadable. "Do you kids really want to learn how I do what I do?"

Her posture stiffened with anticipation. "We want every advantage we can get."

For a flicker of time the redhead looked like her ancient doppelganger once more. Opher smiled more at the image of Carmine in his head than at Pyrrha. "Then talk to that planet instead of figuring out to ignore it."

"Excuse me?" she eventually replied, face softening with confusion after an unsuccessful think about his words. "I'm not sure I follow."

She didn't? A slightly startled Opher produced his hat again, shook it into a relatively less-crumpled state, and put it back on. "You feel Aura. Why do you think you were able to feel the planet's magnetosphere?"

A spurt of science flowed from her peachy lips. "They're both electromagnetic fields. It makes sense that I would be able to detect both." He was grinning at her now for reasons she couldn't place, which forced her to stop there. Regret about pursuing this conversation in the first place began to set in. "Why are you smiling?"

"You're telling me you have to get close to someone to feel their Aura, but you felt the planet's magnetism from… how far away?" he asked, trying to jog what he thought was simply a forgotten, but known, memory.

"I-" Pyrrha couldn't immediately answer him. Her lips pursed and arms crossed loosely as she turned away to think. "It _is_ the planet's field. It's quite powerful. So powerful that it protects us from the radiation pressure of-"

"Don't be stupid." He grinned again to hide his worry when she snapped her eyes over to him. "The planet's 'magnetism'," he began, throwing air quotes around the word with an appropriate level of obnoxiousness, "exists at a given intensity per unit area just like someone's Aura does – that number would be way, way lower than even the weakest personal Aura, but you _felt it anyway_." He paused to let her turn fully to face him. "You felt it because it realized it could communicate with you, obviously. I bet you're not the only one, either."

Great, he was crazy. Pyrrha shook his assertion away, rubbing at her forehead through the golden crown behind her red forelocks. "The magnetosphere isn't a person. I… I'm sorry. This was a mistake." She turned to leave.

"And I can't kill Grimm the way I kill Grimm, either, now can I?"

This prevented her first step away, though she kept her back to Opher. "I'm sure there's a perfectly valid explanation for what you did – one I hoped I'd be able to get from you, but we're here talking in circles about magnetism instead," she stated evenly.

He crossed his arms again, still grinning. Apparently he had to be _so_ basic with the subject that it masqueraded as guile – perhaps as insanity too – but such were the times in which he now lived, though he couldn't figure out why in the world that was the case. "What if I told you it was related to your silver-eyed friend and the white flash of light that she caused?"

Pyrrha whirled on him, as expected, mouth ajar. " _R_ _uby_ did it? I thought it was you!" The smile left his face at the same speed the color left hers. "You… you're not smiling anymore." And he wasn't talking anymore either. She moved back toward him. "Are you just messing with me right now?"

"I haven't been messing with you since I got here." Their eyes locked together. "Her white light stopped the Grimm. I finished them off. It may have been subconscious, but she spoke to the planet and that was the result. Interested now?" The growing confusion on her face was somehow amusing to him, but he refused to smile at it. "The way they're teaching you to fight clearly ain't the way I learned."

His next thought arrived as a whim: perhaps it now fell to him to bring humans and Faunus back to the truth, where his lost love had somehow failed. How she'd managed that was a question to be asked later. Whatever the reason, it would be a good way to carry on her legacy – and quite the source of entertainment if he could make those lessons stick with a new generation of wide-eyed kids. His mother, once herself a teacher, would be proud of him. Opher produced his Scroll, tapped at it for a second, then showed its screen to Pyrrha; displayed on it was his number. "Go on. Write it down."

"B-but..." The redhead obliged him a moment later, tapping it into a hastily-opened notepad file on her own device. "Say I believe any of this. How do I 'speak to the planet', as you put it?"

She already was – they all were, but that was a topic for another time, as Opher felt like he was beginning to overstay his welcome. "Just like you're talking to me." He adjusted his hat after storing his Scroll and made for the chapel entrance. "Start small. Really small… and just say something to the sunshine you've been ignoring for all these years. I'm out. Don't call me at some stupid hour, either. I'm sure I'll see you kids in a couple of days when I come back here with Indigo anyway." With that, he exited the chapel and left a bewildered Pyrrha alone.

The redhead slumped on her feet with a sigh. "Speak with the… what is he even talking about?" His immense Aura field departed with him, allowing her mind to focus on other things – including the persistent orbital buzz of Remnant's magnetic field, a sensation which she usually kept caged up in the back of her mind. For the first time in a long time, she focused on it instead of away from it. "All right, let's see." But an opener wouldn't come. Taking to heart his advice to start small, Pyrrha looked at the sweat on her skin and directed her next words toward the sensation, arranging it like a prayer and still feeling immensely silly in the process. "Uh… if you can hear this… I wish it wasn't so hot. Please?"

Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty. Just as Pyrrha slumped further with disappointment and started for the door, she felt and heard a tiny pop from a pouch on her belt – one in which she carried Dust crystals. When she opened the flap to investigate, a blue crystal within fragmented into powder as she watched, then wafted up like a cloud. Something caught it which she didn't recognize at first until the formation turned into oval-shaped, thin hoops which converged somewhere in her own body while curving all around it. The resulting cloud of ice Dust dropped the temperature around her sharply, then exhausted its power and fell to the floor as gray, lusterless Ash powder around her feet.

Pyrrha barely acknowledged its presence; she was too busy trying to mentally unravel how her Dust primed itself, how it crushed itself, then how it deployed itself around her without detonation and the explosion of every crystal on her belt, which almost certainly would have blown her legs off. She fell into a nearby pew, staring at her trembling fingers. "How did-"

The door opened. Her eyes darted over and found Nora's head poked in through the frame. She grinned at the redhead when they made eye contact. "There you are! I saw you talkin' to hat boy. Didja you get us some goggles?" she joked. Most of the humor left her face when she saw how pale her leader was. "Whoa. What's up? Did he say something mean? I'll beat his ass," she added while walking over quickly.

"No! No, no, it's fine," she replied quickly. Tears streamed down her face, though she didn't yet realize it as a roiling sea of emotion sloshed within her chest – not wholly made of confusion about what had just happened, though some of it did exist, but a feeling she was, despite her eloquence, unable to identify at all. Instinctively, however, it felt _incredibly_ positive in ways that were beyond her considerable vocabulary to describe.

"But you're crying?" Nora replied, one hand on her shoulder.

"I am?" A gloved hand went up to check. "I guess I am." Normally, a breathing exercise would have ensued in an attempt to stop it, but she didn't feel it was necessary; these weren't really unhappy tears. She searched desperately for some way to label this feeling and calm her friend's nerves. "I promise I'm all right," she insisted as Nora sat down in the pew with her. "Something… something happened just now that I can't really explain."

"Like… what?"

Like she'd just been told she had a long-lost brother or sister that wanted to meet her. Like she'd been ill for her whole life, but now found herself cured. Like her eyes were finally, joyously open. Pyrrha was at a loss to explain why she felt so utterly moved, but some fantastic phantom sank its ethereal claws into her bones and whispered, directly to her soul, _I'm here, like I always should have been_. "I'm afraid he didn't give me any low-light gear," she said through her grin. "But I believe he's given me – us – something much better."

* * *

Processing it, however, required time. Dinner – as well as sunset – came and went before Pyrrha felt ready to relate the story to her slightly worried team. They were arranged on their bunk beds as she paced around the room. It wasn't nervousness that propelled her, but excitement. "I suppose I should start at the very beginning," she said, hands clasped behind her back. "I've spoken about how training to use my Semblance allowed me to detect the Auras of others." Nods of confirmation. "Right. Well, I can feel something else too." She pointed toward the ceiling.

Jaune looked up and completely missed the point. "The sky?" Nora snorted at him. "What?"

"No, Jaune, Remnant's natural electromagnetism. Its magnetosphere." That huge word was far beyond his reach – she could see it in his blue eyes – so she moved fast to simplify. "It's all magnetism. Like our Auras. This is just a bigger field produced by things going on in Remnant's core."

This he could decipher. "Okay," he said with a nod. "Sorry, keep going."

Nora didn't let her. "Whoa, wait, you can feel that? All the way down here?" she cut in just as the redhead opened her mouth.

Pyrrha needed a split-second to confirm this. "Yes. It's not really just _up there_ , it surrounds us from the surface of the planet, all the way up into space." Then she carried on. "As I was saying, I can feel this, but… I never really paid attention. I just put it aside so I could focus on my own Aura, and later the Aura of others. But..." She hesitated, adjusting the fit of her gloves as she tried to properly arrange her thoughts. "Opher might have shown me a different way to think about it. I, ah… _interacted_ with the field in the chapel, and I think it may have primed and detonated a Dust crystal on its own accord."

The lanky blonde, launched by worry, hopped out of his bed. "Wait, was there an explosion?! Are you okay?" he asked while walking over to her.

She waved both hands at him. "I'm fine, I'm fine. All I know is that I didn't prime the crystal myself. And it… well, it shattered into powder as I watched it, then I believe it caught got up and dispersed in my Aura. I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm almost certain it happened in response to what I did."

Nora looked up at Ren's silent urging and relayed a whispered question to Pyrrha after getting it from him. "Ren wants to know if you're really sure you didn't do it by accident? That it's not just..." She looked back up at him for a clarification. "What did you call it again?" Another whisper. "Confirmation bias, gotcha."

On this, the redhead was absolute. "I'm positive. I didn't prime it myself, it just… activated and disintegrated as I watched. I have no idea how. The thing is, it burned. It didn't explode. It..." Her gaze darted about in search of a good analogy. "Like a candle. Crystals can't usually do that."

"The whole thing just goes up at once, right?" Jaune said, remembering a bit of knowledge from combat class earlier that day. "Once a crystal sorta explodes, the whole thing has to explode. It's not… stable, anymore?"

Pyrrha nodded at him, emerald eyes shining with pride. "Yes, exactly."

"So how'd you interact with the whatever, or whatever?"

Nora's question finally brought something other than a smile to Pyrrha's face. If she just said what happened, it would probably seem unbelievable. Then again, it was unbelievable coming from Opher's lips in the first place... and they were her friends. She felt they deserved the whole truth. "I spoke to it."

Blank staring from all three at first, which yielded first on Jaune's face to mild confusion. "You can talk to it?" He looked to Nora for confirmation or denial when the redhead, slightly embarrassed, failed to answer him. "Can you?"

"Uhhhhhm..." Noting her leader's awkwardness, she tried to re-frame it in a way that wouldn't seem quite so outlandish. "Like a prayer?"

This gave Pyrrha enough of a chance to relax and think up a more scientific explanation. "I must have unconsciously manipulated my Aura in a way that caused this interaction with the planet's magnetism," she said, wandering back to her bed to sit down. She smiled at Jaune on the way by. "Emotions _can_ have an affect on how it functions… so when I, ahem, _prayed_ , I must have altered it in the right way to allow this to happen."

Their collective uncertainty subsided. Nora was the first to jump onboard with the idea. "So I just pray to the planetary super-magnet _and_ the gods too? Works for me!" Another question from Ren up above. "Ren wants to know if you think this can help us in the trial."

"Planetary super-magnet?" Pyrrha hunched over slightly with a laugh. "I'm not sure if it can help us or not, but I think we should let Ruby and her-" She fell silent, remembering Opher's remark about her _silver-eyed friend_. "Ah, that reminds me, actually. Opher mentioned Ruby, too."

"What about her?"

She looked up at Jaune. "He says the white flash was her doing. And the way he talked about her… he specifically mentioned her eyes, but he didn't really explain anything further besides saying she also interacted with Remnant's magnetic field when she did it. I'm not sure if it's the same thing that happened to me."

Nora scratched at her bright auburn locks with a frown. "Weeeeeird… should we tell her? If we don't know anything else, it might not help."

"I've already decided I should." Pyrrha stood up again, paused to re-tie the red sarong around her waist, and walked to the door. "I may as well now, in fact. I'll be right back."

When she entered the hall and looked, she found their door was open. A peek inside revealed all four girls were present; Ruby was in conversation with Blake at one of the small desks, while Yang, in her bed, seemed to be busy with her Scroll. Weiss occupied the other desk, reading a book.

Ruby noticed her first. "Hey! What's up? Are we being loud?"

She shook her head with a smile. "Oh, no, not at all. I just need to talk to you about something for a moment."

"Me? Just me?" Pyrrha's nod caused Ruby to blink – and Yang to look down from her perch on the bed, curious. "Okay. Sorry, Blake, hold that thought for a second."

"Take your time," the Faunus replied, rising to stretch. "This chair is rough on my butt anyway."

"Hee hee hee, you said butt."

Weiss glared over her left shoulder toward Yang. "Are you literally seven years old?" she snapped.

Ruby snickered as she followed the much taller girl out into the hallway. She noted with some curiosity the amount of distance the redhead put between themselves are the open door, but followed duly without inquiry until she finally came to a stop. "Sooooo," she said, swinging her arms back and forth as she rocked on her heels. "What's goin' on?"

Pyrrha leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and closed her eyes. "I spoke with Opher today."

"Oh. Huh. I didn't even know he was here." The subtle change in atmosphere caused her to become a little more alert – and antsy. "What about it?"

"He mentioned the white flash. He mentioned you." Pyrrha's eyes opened and she looked down at her friend. "He seems to think you did it."

Ruby's face, which had gone blank as she listened, suddenly lit up with surprise. "What? That's silly. I know I screamed and all, but I was just freaking out 'cause Yang was about to-" Thinking on that memory was a terrible idea – she tensed up hard and had to breathe herself back toward calm for a few seconds. "Never mind."

She recalled the presence of blood in her silver eyes for some time after the incident, added that to the theory-crafting she'd just done with her own team, and realized the pieces might fit together better than she first suspected. "I'm inclined to give it some consideration, given the other things he talked to me about."

"Other stuff? I'm all ears." Ruby listened in silence while Pyrrha repeated the details about her chat with Opher, pacing around slowly as the redhead spoke with her arms crossed and head down, ingesting, processing. Her spiel contained it all – their back-and-forth about Remnant's magnetic field, his reference to Ruby's silver eyes, the strange experience with the ice Dust crystal in her pouch, and she threw in the brainstorming she'd done to explain it to finish the whole diatribe off.

It was only when Yang announced her presence with a statement that either girl knew they had a guest. "Crystals can't do that," the blonde said, walking away from the door and over to them when they noticed her. "They don't just prime themselves. Are you sure you didn't do it without meaning to? I've accidentally primed crystals before, especially back when I didn't know what the hell I was doing."

"Wha… Yang! This is a private conversation!" Ruby whined, flailing her arms. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not if it's about you, it ain't." Yang looked to Pyrrha for her answer. "And long enough to hear everything Pyrrha said about what he said. Anyway, what about my question?"

"I'm certain. Something else happened here."

Ruby, puffy-cheeked and annoyed, glared at her sister for a moment before turning her attention back to Pyrrha. "Okay, fine, but, uh… what does all this magnetism stuff have to do with me? Or whatever the white light was?"

"Well, your eyes were bloody afterward. Blood is full of iron. If your Aura attained some sort of unusual charge state, that might be why your blood vessels burst," she hypothesized, rubbing at her chin all the while. "It may have excited air molecules enough to cause the flash of light, too. Why it was focused on your eyes, or what effect it had on the Grimm… I couldn't tell you. Like I said, he didn't say much else about it."

"Right, okay." An unimpressed Yang folded her arms and eyed them both. "Are we really buying what this guy says? I know what he did, but we hardly know _anything_ about him beyond that. Let's pump the brakes."

"I'd agree, but..." Pyrrha looked up and down the hall; her voice became low. "Please don't share what I'm about to say outside of the four of you. Out of courtesy. It isn't something harmful, I promise." Reluctant nodding from both girls was her reply. "Okay. His Aura isn't like anything I've ever felt before."

"In what way?" the blonde asked.

The redhead clasped her hands and stared at the floor. "In size and intensity. It would be larger than our dorm rooms if he were standing in them. It might be larger than this entire _building._ Like I said to him, he has the Aura of a hundred people, not one." She expected their disbelieving looks and smiled. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Wait, uh, what? How can that be possible?" Ruby asked at length. "I know it gets stronger as you train, but… a hundred guys in one? How?"

"He did mention that he learned a different way to fight. Perhaps that includes Aura enhancement techniques? Who knows. Something to think about, I guess. Oh!" Pyrrha showed them her Scroll for a moment. "He gave me his number, at least! Now we can get in touch with him much easier."

"Well, in that case, give _me_ his number." Yang regarded the quizzical look on Pyrrha's face with a light frown. "I want to know what he thinks he knows about Ruby and whatever happened. Now. _Right_ now."

Remembering her promise, Pyrrha chuckled nervously and placed a hand on the pouch which held her device. "Ah, in the morning, maybe. I'm not sure he'd appreciate a call at this hour. Besides, he'll be back on campus at the end of the week anyway, so we might get a face-to-face with him before the trial begins."

"Man, I don't care-" Yang looked down when Ruby gently grabbed her wrist.

"It's fine. I can wait. Let's not make him mad, right? Maybe he can teach me how to do it again, then we'll be _set_. Okay?" She smiled when her sister relaxed and shrugged her acquiescence. "Okay. Welp, who wants to go explain all this to Blake and Weiss?"

"I'll help you. We're still trying to figure out if there are any combat implications for what I've learned. I'll bring everyone over. Be right back!" Pyrrha took her leave to go retrieve her team as Ruby and Yang walked back into their own dorm room.

"Everything okay?" Blake asked as they arrived.

"It's probably fine," Ruby said, giving her a thumbs up. "But Pyrrha had a talk with mystery guy today and she wants to share what she learned, so it's time for another team meeting!"

"Two-team meeting," Weiss corrected, still occupied with her book.

Ruby took it in flawless stride, nodding all the while. "Two-team meeting."

"Lovely." Weiss marked her page and closed the book, an annoyed look on her face. "I hope this doesn't take long. I'd like to turn in early tonight."


	13. Overflow

Subtle vibrations pulled Weiss from her dreamless sleep – her silent Scroll alarm, set for 4:30 AM, continued to buzz quietly until she flicked the device off her pillow and gained enough presence to tap the screen and turn it off. Groggy moaning followed this for a few seconds until thoughts rushed in to help her toward alertness. "Hnnn," she breathed quietly. From around and above her the quiet snoring of her teammates rained down. Keen to keep them asleep – especially Blake – she carefully slipped out of bed and approached their attached bathroom on tip-toes.

Weiss had a plan to relieve the tension on Blake's shoulders, as well as to alleviate her own worries. To carry it out she'd need to be sneaky. Some preparation had already gone into it; she'd staged her outfit in the bathroom, as well as her boots, so changing into them occurred away from her team where they wouldn't hear anything. She chose to forego tying her hair into its usual ponytail, as well as her red-lined bolero jacket – it was too hot outside anyway – and returned to the main room only to get her Scroll before slipping outside into the hallway. Even shutting the door required several seconds to ensure maximum stealth. Once it was closed, however, she was free to move a little faster. Outside she went, straight away, into the humid air and a cacophony of distant insect chirping. Beacon Tower loomed above off to her left as she took a breath and looked around the empty campus. Where she might find Velvet Scarlatina, she didn't know, but Weiss had given herself what she thought was enough time to search before sunrise woke her teammates. She set off down the main walkway and looked for visual indications someone might be around as she went, though this was initially limited at first to checking for lights in windows. The recent presence of upperclassmen on campus made this much harder, as she didn't know what buildings were now occupied. Despite this, the whole dorm complex seemed to be dark; her brow crinkled with annoyance. "Hrm. I can't exactly barge in there and check." That would be a last resort; for now she chose to search elsewhere.

With her concentration on searching set aside for the moment, Weiss' thoughts drifted to the wild story Pyrrha had weaved in their dorm room a few hours earlier. "Self-priming Dust. What a joke," she muttered with a grin. "I think she's cracking under the strain." As if it wasn't getting to her, too, she had to admit – that was partially why she found herself outside in the first place. Her smile disappeared. "Hrm." She cast her eyes skyward with the frown that replaced it and stared at the moon.

She chose to process the self-priming conundrum first. Priming required a person's Aura, which was why she was certain Pyrrha must have done so by accident. Everything she knew about the interactions of electromagnetism with Dust crystals – especially that priming action, which altered their molecular structure – told her that the planet's magnetic field was much too weak to cause that process. Otherwise, every Dust deposit on the planet would be a time bomb, impossible to mine without detonation. The gentle disintegration of an active crystal into powder was harder to dismiss; perhaps the redhead might have stumbled across a new priming state, a prospect definitely worth investigating. Crystals could be powdered on demand by their users, which would save the huge energy and industrial costs of crushing them mechanically. Her brow furrowed. Perhaps their rescuer used this technique to powder his Dust stores, prime them on deployment, then cause their explosion. The size of the clearing posed a problem for this, as well as the number of Grimm he had to hit. She now knew about his Aura – Ruby had told the whole team while the redhead was there – but even if it was as large as she said, to project that sort of intensity at that distance would have blown up every ounce of Dust in their possession. Weiss couldn't resolve what she'd seen with her new story, nor his ability to throw giant ice spears, but she had no intention of talking to magnetism. That concept was simply ridiculous – almost as ridiculous as the notion that Ruby was responsible for the flash of light. No, her theory about Opher's powdered Dust assault would explain it better; if the whole air was saturated, then that explosion would have produced a circular light discharge. If that was true, however, then how could have he avoided hitting them? Weiss had no answer for this.

It was right about then that Weiss realized her train of thought had taken her toward the east gate of the campus, near the gym and some of the minor administration buildings. This spot was just as deserted as the dorm complex, which left her no closer to finding the rabbit Faunus. If Velvet really was the campus janitor, she might be anywhere – Weiss didn't have _that_ much time to hunt her down. Her eyes went up to the tower. While some windows in the middle of the structure emitted light – likely the CCT-related spaces, which were staffed twenty-four hours a day – even it was mostly dark. "There can't be more than a dozen people awake at this hour," she muttered to herself as she wandered toward the library and dining hall. The campus wasn't as crowded with buildings in this section, leaving Weiss in a world of neatly-maintained shrubbery and dimly-lit walkways. At least she could see more, though she wasn't brave enough to use her Scroll's flashlight to try and make things easier. Such attention was, to her, currently undesirable. Moonlight from high above glinted pleasantly off Beacon's chapel in the distance. "This is..."

Voices. One voice, anyway, so faint that she couldn't even determine its gender. Merely finding out which way to go to get closer to it was a process that cost Weiss several halted steps in various directions until, finally, it got a little louder as she walked toward the library. As she drew near the stately old building, she saw a silhouette at the base of the steps leading up to its doors, just visible in the weak yellow light given off from nearby lampposts. How close she could get to glean more detail about the person without alerting them to her presence became a silent guessing game – eventually, she took one step at a time, crouched behind what bushes she could reach, ears straining to hear. This was a woman, a gruff, gravelly-voiced one at that, definitely not Velvet. As such, her interest faded in the particulars of this person's identity and she stood up, intending to take her leave and avoid eavesdropping. As she turned to depart, however, the stranger moved under a lamppost, whose light revealed her dusky green hair and absolutely _mountainous_ frame. She appeared to be speaking to someone via a Scroll next to her left ear. Weiss couldn't recall seeing her on campus before. Noting her proper skirt suit, Weiss breathed "CCT staff, probably," and silently left the scene.

On the way back toward the auditorium area, she saw someone else on the edge of the walkway, whistling quietly with what seemed to be a broom in their hands. A cart of some type was nearby. A few seconds later, she could see rabbit ears – mission accomplished. She'd found her girl. To avoid startling her, Weiss planned to walk by and approach from the front, but Velvet's keen hearing defeated that idea. She stopped sweeping and raised her head, ears bent with abrupt nervousness. "Is someone there?" she said, not much louder than her usual conversational volume.

Weiss came to a halt, debated whether or not to blow her cover now, and decided there was no point in delaying the inevitable. "Yes."

A wide-eyed Velvet whirled on her feet and stared at Weiss as she approached, one step at time. "A-aah, wh-what are you d-doing out here at th-this hour?" she stuttered, too surprised to back away. "What are you d-doing out here _at all_?"

"I just want to talk." She showed Velvet her empty hands and kept walking closer.

"W-w-why?" The nervous rabbit placed the cart between herself and Weiss. "I don't think we have anything to talk about."

"I want to know what you said to Blake."

Velvet froze in her tracks, grip so tight on the broom handle that her hands began to ache. She flicked looks over both shoulders in search of an escape route. "I'm not–I can't talk to you about that," she offered weakly. "Please j-just leave me alone."

Weiss, anticipating this, put her negotiating skills to work, subtly walking closer as she spoke. "All I'm asking is to know what Blake knows." This didn't work; a wavy-mouthed Velvet clammed up and started to back away to gain distance. "Velvet, please. Blake won't tell me and I'm worried. I know awful things happened to you. Let me hear the whole story so my family can make sure those things never happen to anyone else again. Please?"

A noble idea, one Velvet found harder to deny – but she remained quiet, staring at the stone pavement, face twisting occasionally with internal conflict. "Ah..." Repeated conditioning finally won out; she made eye contact with a frown and sighed. "I really can't. I'm sorry. I'm… glad you want to help, I guess, but-"

"You wouldn't let me carry this emotion into a field trial, would you?" Weiss replied evenly, seeing the need to turn the screws a little as her temper began to rise. "You're not like that." The corners of her mind echoed with how much she sounded like _him_ , so she went no further and let Velvet wallow in uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. Something had the Faunus' attention now – her eyes were directed toward Weiss, but not at her. She refused to follow Velvet's stare.

That was a mistake. A hand came to rest on her bare right shoulder, gently for a split-second, then clamping down with a grip so strong that it caused Weiss to squirm in pain halfway through her motion to look back. She hissed with discomfort. "Let go of me, you-"

Coco met her wide-eyed gaze, peering down from on high from behind her impenetrably opaque sunglasses. A snarl bent her glossy lips. She only released Weiss when the girl exerted enough of an effort to try and twist out of her grasp. Velvet immediately skittered behind her taller friend for protection. "Why the _fuck_ are you out here bothering her?" she spat, raising her left arm slightly so Velvet could hug her side.

No lie Weiss had at hand could possibly get her out of this situation, so the truth would have to do. "I was merely inquiring about what she told Blake after the-"

She'd already heard enough and cut the heiress off right there. "Then go _ask Blake_!"

Weiss snapped back, despite the tiny voice in her head saying it might not be prudent to piss off an upperclassman that was already mad and had almost a foot of height on her. "I already have! She can't—she _won't_ say anything! All I want is the whole story! If it has something to do with our company, then… then I have the right to know!" Too late she realized how much like her father she sounded, again, but that disgust would have to be dealt with later; right now, she stared at Coco, fists clenched.

So Blake _had_ kept up her end of the deal. Coco was pleased to know this, though Weiss heard none of that emotion when she answered. "All about the family business, isn't it? I should have expected as much from a fuckin' Schnee. Get outta my sight before you dig yourself a deeper hole."

Whoops. Weiss managed to lead off with the least tactful reasoning in her arsenal. She backpedaled from it with wide eyes and waving hands. "It's not just that. I want to know what caused Blake so much grief. We need her for Fraidich night. We're worried. She's so upset that she mentioned trying to withdraw from the trial."

After a quick study of her nervous posture, Coco accepted that her words were at least somewhat true and shed just a little of her disdain. A hand went to her hip. "I'm sorry, but that doesn't give you the right to come out here and pester Velvet. She can't tell you either. So get lost."

Weiss' expression left agitation behind and went straight to pure frustration instead – frustration over how little things seemed to have changed even with a continent's worth of distance away from her family. "Why am I always the last to know anything," she growled under her breath. "I just want-"

"It's not all about you out here, Schnee." Coco pointed toward the dorm complex, staring Weiss down. "Now go back to bed and leave Velvet alone."

After a moment or two, with a muttered "damn it" for good measure, the heiress took her leave. Coco tracked her departure all the way until she went out of sight behind some of the taller walkway shrubbery, after which her attention went instantly to the girl still clinging to her side. "You okay down there?"

"I'm good," she confirmed weakly. "I've got my medicine in my pocket if I need it. I'm fine." She detached herself and stood in front of the taller girl, measured breaths entering and leaving her chest. "I'm kinda proud of you. You were… really calm. I thought you were gonna punch her."

"Maybe I should have." She smirked when Velvet crossed her arms. "Hey, there's always Fraidich night."

"Coco Adel, do not!"

That huffy tone sent her into fits of laughter for a few seconds, potent enough to cause tears which she had to remove her sunglasses to wipe away. "Okay, mom, sheesh. If she bothers you again, though, she's eating my fist." She watched as Velvet picked up sweeping the edges of the walkway and followed her once she moved to a different spot. "I'll be glad when they hire some extra help for you."

"You could grab a broom. I've got plenty."

"Nah." Coco ruffled her hair and snickered when the rabbit Faunus gently bopped her on the shoulder. "Bodyguards don't sweep." She looked over her shoulder toward the library in the distance and caught, just briefly, a glimpse of someone on the walkway, apparently bound for the southern section of the campus. The shadow was so large that she instantly knew who it was. "I guess Miss Duprix is done at the library."

"About time," Velvet grumbled. "I've been waiting to clean over there for an hour."

* * *

Ruby put on as threatening of an air as she could while being completely unarmed, all hunched over and tense, with most of her weight on her right foot in preparation to sprint across the circular raised stone floor. Opposite her was a thoroughly unimpressed Ciel, hands clasped behind her back and standing erect with no expression on her face. She remained still as the cloaked girl circled her on occasionally clumsy steps, patience wearing thinner with every second that ticked by. When Ruby finally unleashed her Semblance, charging forward as a reddish smear, Ciel used her own; her perception of time slowed to a crawl, as did its local temporal effects on her body. Unstuck from the seconds as they flowed around her, she walked past Ruby – who now existed as a gently-rotating, spiral structure made of red and black gashes of color – and took her original starting spot. Her Semblance then deactivated.

This left Ruby to drop out of her dash, arms splayed, ready to tackle a girl who was no longer standing there. She cast frantic glances around. "What the frick?" left her lips just before she found her target back at her starting point. This time she didn't telegraph her dash and performed it the moment she was turned in the right direction. When she arrived, however, Ciel was gone again. "Stop that!" she yelled. "Stop not being where I want you to be!" A hand on her head told Ruby where Ciel was: directly behind her. A shrill whistle rang out from the combat arena's bleachers.

"Miss Soleil wins!" said the mustachioed, portly man who'd blown that whistle.

"Booooooooooooooooo!" Yang shouted from the stands, hands cupped around her mouth. "Stop making my little sister look bad, you jerk!"

"Sorry about that," Ciel mumbled before she stepped away from Ruby and headed back into the bleachers, where a cheering, jumping, arm-waving Penny awaited her arrival.

"Gods help me, how are you _so_ much faster than I am?" She pursued up the stands on pouty stomps before coming to a stop at the level where her own team was seated. "Teach me your secrets! Come on! Please?" she called to Ciel's back.

All she got from the bronze-skinned, thin girl was a shrug. "I don't think it works like that." Her cool, collected demeanor collapsed under the force of a crushing hug from Penny once she sat down. "Ungh! Penny! Ow!"

"Sorry!"

Ruby released her mild irritation and cackled as she returned to her own team. "Man. I was toast from the start."

Yang offered the same joking solution she always did when her little sister displayed frustration at someone or something. "Want me to punch her?"

"First, no, and second, I don't think you could if you wanted to."

While Blake smiled pleasantly at their exchange, a silent Weiss sat off to the side, chin in both hands, staring off into space and ignoring everyone and everything around her. She watched their teacher take his place at the center of the circular arena, glancing at something on his Scroll. He spoke a few seconds later. "I'm afraid that's going to be our last contact match for the day. Upperclassmen, you are dismissed. Freshmen, please stay where you are."

The older kids proceeded to stand up and depart through the nearest exits, leaving about two dozen slightly bewildered students behind. "What's going on, Professor Port?" Pyrrha asked above the general din of people leaving.

"I'll explain in a moment." Port waited until the noise died down enough for muttering among those who remained to replace it. "All right. As you're all aware, we're receiving a large influx of students Mandag. To handle this, we're going to be splitting some classes up by year – this course is one of them. I'll be handling combat instruction for the sophomores and juniors. The freshman class will be getting its own teacher." He waved toward one of the arena entrances. "Come on in and introduce yourself!"

Ruby, Pyrrha, and their teams couldn't see who it was until he had almost exited the bleachers entirely and entered the central space. His back was to them as he walked over to greet Professor Port, but from here they could see his spiky black hair, long-sleeved, collared gray shirt, black pants, and a ratty red cloak that hung off his shoulders and almost down to his black boots. That was enough for Yang and Ruby to stand up and hug each other with surprise. "It's-!" the blonde said.

Qrow looked over his shoulder and grinned at his two nieces once niceties with the stout old teacher were done. "Eh? Who are you two?"

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby squealed, bouncing down across the bleacher seats and jumping over the railing with Yang not far behind. She seized him in the strongest embrace her arms would allow. "I thought you were still on leave from Signal!"

"I was, but Headmaster Ozpin asked Headmistress Spaatz to transfer me over to help handle all the new kids." It was Yang's turn to give him a hug – unlike her little sister, she had the upper body strength to do some serious damage. He grunted in her powerful clutches. "Hey, kid, maybe you shouldn't break my ribs before my first lesson even starts."

"You're smelling awfully sober," she quipped lowly into his ear.

"Cute. I oughta fail your butt right now." He flicked her on the forehead as they broke the hug. His nieces flanked him on the arena platform as he turned to address the other students. "All right, all right, ignore these two. I know it's hard. They're loud." He thumbed over at Yang. "Especially her."

"Why don't you fight me right now, old man?" she fired back, grinning mightily.

Qrow allowed himself a little chuckle before his tone and expression got more serious. "I'm Qrow Branwen, Huntsman and combat instructor on loan from Signal Academy in Vale. Nice to meetcha."

"Professor Branwen is one of Signal's best, so you're all in good hands." Port straightened the collar of his maroon jacket and gave Qrow a solid pat on the shoulder as he began to leave. "I'll let you get acquainted with the class," he added quietly.

"Yeah, thanks." He walked toward the stands, cape fluttering slightly behind him, to examine his new class a little more closely. "I've already heard a lot about you from Port, so let me address a couple of things. I don't care what your combat capability is right now. I taught all kinds of kids at Signal – from students that have been in Academies most of their lives, to students that had never picked up a weapon before I saw 'em. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. As long as you're willing to learn, I can work with you. Don't worry about it."

He'd been talking about Jaune, of course, without naming him or even looking at him beyond a glance or two. He picked up on this and displayed a relieved smile, which boosted Pyrrha's mood beside him. "I like him already," she said to her team.

"That said, I hear we've got some badasses too." His red eyes landed on Penny and Ciel in the back. "You two. And, surprisingly..." He looked back at his nieces with another grin.

"What do you mean _surprisingly_?!" Yang exclaimed, arms crossed. Some of the crowd chuckled.

"Exactly what you think. Well, I ain't gonna keep you guys, I know you've got other classes. I'll see you all tomorrow morning anyway. Get outta here." Qrow waved at one of the many exits and shoved his hands into his pockets. His nieces remained by his side, of course, both girls wildly motioning to their friends in the crowd to come join them. "Eh? What's this? _You_ made friends? Really?"

"I can make friends!" Ruby huffed at him just as the rest of her team arrived. "Blake! Weiss! This is my Uncle Qrow!"

"It's nice to meet you," Blake greeted politely with a brief bow of her head. She seemed slightly more enthusiastic about the affair than Weiss, but only sightly.

"What in the world happened to your cloak," the heiress mumbled under her breath.

Pyrrha's crew arrived to pay their respects just after she spoke with the redhead going first. "Hello! I'm Pyrrha."

"Nikos. Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure your face was on a box of cereal I had this morning for breakfast." Qrow grinned at her awkward chuckle. "Don't worry, I don't plan on treating you special just 'cause you're a little famous. In fact," he paused here to eyeball his nieces again, "don't think I'm gonna treat them special 'cause we're related, either. I haven't so far."

"That's true," Yang pointed out. "He rode our asses harder than anybody back at Signal."

"I'm glad to hear it," Pyrrha motioned to her teammates. "This is Jaune, Nora, and Ren," she said in turn, allowing each a moment to wave, jump and flail her arms like a lunatic, or silently nod respectively. "We look forward to working with you."

"Good, that's the spirit." Qrow seized Ruby and Yang by a shoulder. "I'm gonna borrow these two for a minute. You all get ready for your next class."

"We'll catch up with you outside!" Ruby called to Blake and Weiss as he led them toward the opposite side of the arena. "Sooooooo, what's up?"

"I heard something weird happened to you girls on your last field trial." The complete sea change in their expressions, then their attempts to cover that shift up with vacant smiles, got Qrow curious. "You wanna tell me about it?"

How in the hell Ruby would ever manage to lie to Qrow's face, she had no idea – so she didn't even try. Full-scale evasion was in order. "We already talked to Professor Goodwitch and Ozpin about the whole thing," she replied, steps slowing to the speed of molasses.

Yang handled it a little smoother than her sister, hands behind her head and feigning relaxation that didn't really exist. "Yeah. Some kinda flash of light that seems to hurt the Grimm. They didn't really know what it was either, so, eh. We got nothin'." A few seconds later, she and Ruby noticed at about the same time that Qrow had ceased walking with them and turned to look. "What?"

The old Huntsman crossed his arms loosely and frowned at them both. "You two wouldn't hide anything from me, now would you?" Furious head shaking from both girls was his answer. "Huh. You know, those Geists have been in that forest since before I started teaching at Signal. I'm glad you girls got all the luck I didn't, otherwise… hm." He thumbed over his shoulder. "Beat it before you're late. We'll talk about this some more later."

Their moods instantly brightened. "Bye Uncle Qrow!" Ruby shouted as she dashed past. "Try not to get in any trouble!"

"Yeah, you better go grab a nap, grandpa." Yang flicked a wave at him and sprinted to catch up with her sister. "Ruby, wait, damn it!"

Qrow watched them leave with a little smile until, finally, he was alone in the arena – at least for about a minute or so. As he turned to depart himself, he saw Ozpin walking toward him from the entrance he intended to use. "Oh, there you are. I was about to come look for you."

The Headmaster raised his coffee mug in a mock toast and smiled as he walked over. "Well, you've found me. I suppose you've met your new students?" Qrow only nodded at this. "Good. I'm sure Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long were pleased to see you."

"Oh yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck and stared off. "I guess you don't need me out in the field for the moment?"

Ozpin allowed himself a little smile after another sip of coffee. "I would be lying if I said my posting you here was all magnanimity; it isn't. Then again, it's not all business either. You've done all I've asked of you and more. Think of it as a reward for a job well done."

More neck rubbing from the old Huntsman, plus a slightly awkward smile. "Thanks." His brow creased slightly afterward as the smirk ran away. "So, what _is_ the business?"

They began to walk together toward an exit, Qrow at Ozpin's left side. "I have heard," the Headmaster began, face etched with ghostly agitation, "that Vale's police department seems to have no problem with Opher Riese's passport."

This was news to Qrow, who trundled forward with his hands shoved into his pockets and wide-eyed surprise. "Did we make a mistake, then?"

"If James Ironwood wasn't so intractable at the moment, it'd be easier to answer that question." His brown eyes narrowed. "I assume your nieces made no mention of anything curious happening during their second trial, did they?"

"No, but they're not being honest about something. They're terrible liars."

"You've guessed right." The Headmaster adjusted his glasses. "I suspect Riese helped them. I've seen him speaking with Miss Rose and Miss Nikos' teams on campus recently. Add that to his presence on campus the morning of the trial – and the night before – as well as Olivine and Amber's investigation of the scene… he's my prime suspect, so to speak."

The news drew surprise across Qrow's face – and boosted his potential opinion about the skinny courier. "So, what, maybe he's a good guy? Why don't we just talk to him and see?"

For Ozpin, the problem wasn't Opher's potential moral code. He flicked his cane into its fully extended mode and used it to help himself walk, the contact of its tip with the stone issuing smart taps every time it occurred. "I'd like to know more about whom I'm dealing with first," he replied at length. He considered the possibilities of the upcoming merchant meeting as a chance to rid himself of the issue, since Vale's police seemed reluctant – perhaps unwilling, or even unable – to solve the problem for him. If he could somehow separate Opher from the group and allow him to venture off campus again to help Ruby if he wished, he might end up in the waiting arms of his death via Amber or Olivine, safely out of sight in the Emerald Forest. He knew from Glynda that she intended to outfit Coco Adel with the equipment needed to record audio and video of the combat trial, to catch the white flash if it happened a second time. If Opher did leave Beacon to help them again, perhaps it would be worth watching him fight before killing him. Both concepts were filed away for further consideration.

"Can we tap his Scroll?"

They were outside now, surrounded by a cloudy day and a few students wandering between classes on the walkways. Ozpin lowered his volume to compensate for their presence. "Unfortunately, no. The CCT equipment is suffering enough due to… various factors. It would be nice if they'd upgrade it, but apparently Vale doesn't generate enough traffic to warrant the hassle and cost."

"Even with piggyback transmissions from Patch?" Qrow asked. A nod was his answer. "I guess that's what we get for being the smallest Kingdom." The crowd thinned out to non-existence as the two men approached Beacon Tower. "What's the play, then, at least for the time being?"

"He'll be here for the merchant meeting at the end of the week. I suppose I'll have some kind of plan before he arrives." They entered the tower lobby; Ozpin called the elevator and both men waited for it by its doors. His next words were only half-serious. "I could use your sister to eject him from Vale and let her deal with him."

"Yeaaaaaah… I know we don't get along, but I ain't sure I like the idea of you throwing this mystery guy right into her lap," Qrow replied, brow kinked with shadowy displeasure.

"Hm. I'm sure she would appreciate your vote of confidence," he quipped as they entered the car and rose to his office.

After the doors opened again to let them out, they found someone already there: Amber, donning one of her demure skirt suits and leaned against the middle left pillar, lost in her bronze Scroll. She looked up when their shoes struck the stone floor and smiled. "Qrow! I haven't seen you in a while."

They shared a polite, brief hug, although he had to lean down a bit to make their embrace work. "Hey kid, how's things?"

She deployed her usual response to this question with a shrug. "I guess I can't complain." All three walked toward Ozpin's grand desk. "Are you two talking shop?"

"We were discussing Riese," the Headmaster said as he sat down in his ornate chair and turned on his projection screen. "I want you and Lady Duprix off campus but on standby Fraidich night. He's going to be here. I do not want to risk him detecting you unless we plan to deal with it immediately."

"I think you're overreacting." Qrow scratched at his spiky locks with a frown. "If he could see magic, he woulda seen me and reacted in _some_ kinda way." Neither of them spoke up in disagreement or affirmation. "What?"

"Yes," Amber finally said after a shared look with Ozpin, "but think about _why_ he didn't. If he didn't care, that indicates power. If he did care and didn't react anyway, he might be covering for something which involves multiple people. We just don't know."

"Of course." Qrow dropped into one of the chairs in front of the desk and lounged back against it, staring at the gears as they turned on the ceiling. "Here's a thought; you guys hold things at arm's length too much. Let's just engage him. Surely we've got someone that can be burned if it goes sideways. Someone that can't be traced back to us. It sounds like a little communication could go a long way."

Amber stroked her chin in thought. "Asset 165 would be a great idea," she said, face screwing up at the label for a person whose name she was much more accustomed to saying, "but she definitely doesn't fit in the _burnable_ category."

Ozpin, fingers steepled, shook his head at her suggestion. "I may need her to address other issues. Positioning her here for those now could be a good idea, if I can talk Lady Branwen into it."

The old Huntsman rolled his eyes. "Oh, another one of big sister's special girls, huh. Where does she keep finding these people?"

"Vacuo exiles more of its citizens than any other organized settlement on the planet. She has quite the crop to choose from." Ozpin leaned forward to eye the data on his projection screen, a set of reports whose mundane content was beneath his concern at the moment. He feigned consideration of Qrow's idea with a light smile. "Although your suggestion isn't entirely without merit, Qrow, I'm just not certain who I would send at this point."

"Any recent graduates come to mind? Could be a good starting point."

"Students get scattered to hell and back when they graduate," Amber countered, walking over to look out the window with her hands clasped behind her back. "And we'd have to use someone from a different Academy to avoid too much suspicion."

"Assuming we could get a Hunter into Vale at all," Ozpin interjected. "Someone whose Grimm exposure is low enough that it wouldn't raise immediate red flags with the Interior Ministry is a hard qualification to fulfill."

"I can get in real damn easy." Qrow dropped his head just in time to see Amber and Ozpin looking at him. "I've already been spying on him. Why not? Let him show up here so he doesn't ask why a Huntsman-slash-instructor is pestering him in Vale. Easy."

"No, not easy," she fired back, one hand rubbing at her citrine eyes. "If he can see the true art and realizes you're the one who was spying on him, we might have a serious problem on our hands."

"Oh, come on, nobody would believe him even if he did talk, and if he's in Vale illegally he ain't gonna want the attention in the first place." A flash of disdain slipped across his face before his next words arrived. "Besides, I'm sure we could _convince_ him to remain quiet somehow, right?"

Amber's eyes lit up as she looked back to Ozpin. "Indigo Stahl."

"Hmm." Cleaning his seemingly-useless glasses was more important to him than the immediate pursuit of that idea. "Perhaps. We still have some time to figure it out." He nodded toward the open elevator doors. "If you wouldn't mind, Qrow."

"Yeah, sure." The old Huntsman hauled himself out of the chair and took his leave. "I'd better go eat before I meet with Glynda anyway. Gods know she's gonna talk my ears off for an hour about paperwork and protocol." He entered the car and tapped the button to head to the lobby; once the doors closed, he deflated in his boots with a sigh and suddenly looked much older than his thirty-nine years would suggest. A shaky hand went up to smooth back his hair. "How much longer can I keep this shit going?" he asked himself lowly.

One look at the lock screen of his Scroll – a goofy picture of himself and his nieces in front of Taiyang Xiao Long's log cabin on Patch, one of the last they'd taken before the girls moved on to Beacon – answered this question for him: as long as necessary for him to keep his promise, a vow to the family whose lives were nearly destroyed by the impulsive stupidity of his idiot older sister. Whatever contortions he needed to endure to extract them from this nightmare, or at least help them survive it, he would endure – even if it had led him to his own ruin in the process. Maybe, just maybe, he'd finally stumbled upon a potential ally in this clandestine endeavor. "If he helped you," he said lowly to their smiling faces, "maybe I'll just talk to him whether that bastard wants me to or not."

* * *

Had she been a little less busy, perhaps Caroline Cordovin could have found the time to lament the ever-decreasing amount of sunshine that entered her corner office through its large windows each day as winter encroached on Atlas. She barely paid attention to the glittering skyline and the snow-covered mountains beyond, however; her desk was piled high with paperwork and requisitions of all descriptions, awaiting examination, then denial or approval as circumstances warranted. Thanks to the rather low temperature in the building, the old officer had on her uniform coat – a garment not unlike the trench coats Vale's police wore, although it wasn't double-breasted and was a pristine white color instead of gray – despite the uncomfortable nature of the stiff rank boards on her shoulders. Upon each of these gold-colored devices sat an empty black wreath, whose base was positioned near the outer edge of the board – the insignia of her rank of Colonel. Her right breast displayed a rack of ribbons of all sorts of colors and patterns, a visual testament to the length and merit of her military service. An equally impressive variety of people, most of them uniformed in a similar way, walked past her office in the hallway to her right, but they also received little attention.

Until, that is, one of them knocked and poked her head in. "Ah, ma'am?" she said, tucking dusty pink locks of hair away from her orange eyes.

Caroline recognized her by voice and didn't bother to look up. "Yes, Sergeant Holtz," she replied, brown eyes still locked on the document in her hand.

"Dataset seven is ready, ma'am. You wanted me to let you know if Lieutenant Reiher found any unusual tags. He did."

This got Caroline's full attention; she brushed her silver hair back with one hand, set aside the document she'd been reading, and rose from her desk. "Very well, Sergeant, tell the signals office I'm on my way."

Holtz stepped aside for her commanding officer to exit and saluted as she went by. "Right away, ma'am."

Traffic in the hallway parted for Caroline like a biblical sea as she walked toward the central bank of elevators for the trip down into the structure. Everyone that could salute her did; those carrying items which precluded that action gave way and assumed a stiff posture until she'd gone by them. All received waves of acknowledgment. Once she arrived at the elevators, instead of calling a car with a button press, she swiped a keycard through a reader above those buttons and stood back to wait. Her ride arrived five seconds later, she stepped into it, and the Colonel was on her way down into the bowels of her installation. Curiosity about the nature of Penny's latest transmission caused her brow to crease slightly. Eventually, the car lurched to a halt in the basement of the building and its doors opened, allowing her to walk into a darkened, frigid room full of huge racks of processing equipment that stood much higher than her five foot, three inch frame. Unlike the pleasant, if pastel-focused décor of the rooms above, the whole area was black – black walls, polished black floor, black ceiling, even the racks themselves were black to provide contrast with the dozens of flashing lights on the front of each. Wherever a bare wall was visible, there existed clear pipes for the transmission of powdered Dust – yellow to power the machines, blue to keep them from overheating. Her shoes issued sharp clicks with every step as she walked deeper into the area. At the center of the complex were three neatly arranged desks, only one of which was manned. The bespectacled – and much taller – young officer sitting behind it stood up abruptly once he noticed Caroline's approach. "Ma'am," he greeted with a salute. Given the cold nature of the room, he too wore his uniform overcoat – the rank boards on his shoulders were decorated with two diamond-shaped black pips each, and he didn't have quite so many service ribbons as the Colonel.

His was the first one she actually returned – exchanging salutes with everyone on the way down would have left her arm exhausted, hence the waves instead. "Lieutenant Reiher. I've been informed that the dataset is ready."

"Yes, ma'am." He motioned at one of the empty chairs, but only sat down once she did. Simultaneous taps on their desks brought up projection screens attached to computers hidden in the furniture. "The Doctor issued firmware update 1.77 last night to address the actuation issues she mentioned in dataset five. We had to halt the process because we detected a new dataset transmission overnight. We found some more of that weirdly encrypted traffic from dataset six, but that's not why I asked you down here. There's another error, but the way she tagged it indicates some kind of relation to an individual in the previous set – and she included a priority inquiry elevation. I'd like your input about the matter, ma'am."

Caroline had the code on her screen now, an obtuse tsunami of letters and numbers which would have been complete nonsense to the untrained eye. She'd already found the logs about Penny's Aura sensor suite. "I see the error." Her eyes darted along the lines of text for a moment. Every Aura measurement the android had taken between the transmissions of datasets six and seven was included – Ciel's Aura, Pyrrha's Aura, every Aura of every student that happened to sit near her in class or in the combat arena, all of them – and then she saw the problem. "Full spectrum off-scale low reading?" she mumbled. "Just for this one person?" His name was indeed familiar. "Riese, Opher. You're right, I've seen this name. She asked about him earlier, but the Schnee Dust Company hasn't gotten around to answering my records request." A wry smirk bent her lips. "You'd think with all the money the government gives them, they'd have a whole staff just for us."

The Lieutenant chuckled briefly at this before getting back to the issue at hand. "I don't understand why the EM coils registered full saturation but the sensors told her off-scale low," he said lowly. "It's like the hardware… I don't know, measured a number so high that it overflowed the interpreter register? I don't get it. Maybe it was a short?"

"A short would require Corporal Soleil to perform open-case maintenance. We would have heard about that the moment she ascertained its necessity." The tags associated with the event were more interesting to Caroline than the Lieutenant's speculation. After she'd digested them, she began to condense the information out loud. "This Riese guy seems to have intervened illegally in a combat trial at Beacon Academy recently. She provided a call log between him and..." Her eyes narrowed a little bit as she read the meaningless name of the student. "…someone named Ruby Rose." Context for this exchange came in the details Penny had compiled and included from other intercepted Scroll calls, including some between a Beacon administrator – Glynda Goodwitch – and public relations personnel in Vale's Army. Her brow twitched occasionally as she processed this, searching for a reason why Penny was asking about him again.

Across the way, Reiher was embroiled in troubleshooting. "All sensor circuitry was green before and green after. She only got the error around this one guy."

"Something else is going on here."

He leaned around his screen to regard the Colonel with no small amount of curiosity. "Ma'am?"

The question she asked next wasn't related to data sent by the android, but things she'd heard among the military services themselves in regard to the incident. "You held an infantry MOS once, didn't you? What kind of force would you need to kill two Petra Gigas?"

Answering this required him to think back to his training days. "Well, _our_ battle doctrine says one company backed up by air support per terrestrial Grimm with a height or length over fifty meters, whenever possible. I don't know how Vale's Army does it. Why do you ask, ma'am?"

"We have a problem. Either Vale suddenly has weaponry _waaaaaay_ beyond anything we've got, which I find laughable, or eight freshmen Academy students plus one random Dust shop courier managed to display the combat capability of two full infantry companies." Caroline rose from her chair, leaned on the desk, and stared at its top in thought. "And if I'm asking these questions, I know Central Command in Vale is too. I think General Ironwood would like to know about either possibility."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Keep looking at the error log. I need to make a call." She stalked off toward the periphery of the server room and produced her silver-framed Scroll, not to call Ironwood, but to light a fire under Atlas' favorite Dust conglomerate to give her more details to present to the General when she did. Each subsequent ring intensified the scowl on her face until, finally, someone answered.

"You've reached Schnee Dust Company Headquarters, how may I help you?" said a woman.

The Colonel knew it was a receptionist, because this wasn't the first time she'd heard the voice, and resigned herself to playing a Scroll game to reach the desired department. She maintained professional calm despite her annoyance. "Yes, hello, might you be able to put me in touch with your HR division, please? Actually, if Mister Wainwright is there, tell him Caroline Cordovin would like to speak to him. It's important."

"Just a moment, please." The fast tapping of fingers on a keyboard came through after she spoke. "Mister Wainwright is currently in a meeting. I could transfer you to his assistant, if you'd like."

Progress she'd accept, scant as it was – and despite being relegated to second fiddle by a meeting, though this was likely a result of not wanting to drop her rank in the lap of a random secretary and invoking any undue stress. "That'll be fine, thank you." Now some extremely cheerful hold music flowed into her left ear.

Forty-five seconds later, a new female voice replaced it. "Good afternoon, you've reached Director Wainwright's office! Miss Cordovin, right? What can I do for you?"

Again, she withheld her rank, for now. "That's correct. I'm calling on behalf of 44th Brigade Headquarters in Crystal Park. We put in a records request last week for an employee file and we haven't heard anything back."

More typing. "Ah, so you're from the military. May I know your rank so I can address you properly?"

Caroline donned a smirk. "Colonel. I'm the brigade's commanding officer."

All typing ceased. "A-ah… Colonel? J-just a moment." This new noise sounded like the shuffling of papers. "Oh, yes, we did get that request, but it ended up pretty far down in the stack, ahaha… um… shall I look for you now?"

"If you wouldn't mind." She tamped down her smugness and waited as more paper-shuffling and typing sounds reached her ear.

"Ah, M-Miss Colonel sir, I mean, ma'am, I mean Colonel, erm, we've never had an employee by that name. In any department that I can poll for records, anyway."

Her brown eyes got wide. "I see," was her measured response.

"Is that, um, a problem, Colonel? May I ask about the purpose of the request, or..."

"I'm afraid not, but it's perfectly all right. That's all I needed to know, thank you. Goodbye." She hung up and walked quickly back toward the desks.

The Lieutenant, too busy glaring at the error log, only noticed her return a few seconds later and failed completely to gauge the mild consternation on her face. "I managed to run a low-level scan command while you were out, ma'am. Just got the results. Her sensors are reading green. I think my overflow theory is right… she detected something she was never programmed to interpret. The coils were _totally_ saturated. It should be impossible for one person to generate an Aura projection like this." Silence finally drew his full attention toward the old Colonel. "Ma'am? Something happen?" he asked after a moment.

"I don't know yet." Her fingers flew across a holographic keyboard on the desk as she navigated the government's internal network to reach the Atlesian Interior Ministry's database – something to which she had basically unfettered access – in search of Opher's details. As the hunt progressed, she brought up the top-level passport data Penny skimmed from his chip scans and split her screen real estate in half to accommodate both. On the left went his picture, height, weight, date of birth, and employment history – including his claimed association with the Schnee Dust Company – while on the right she watched her query get fed through the ministry's database. It came back blank. No responses found. This information, nor anything similar to it, had ever been scanned and read anywhere within the Kingdom of Atlas at any time since the system's introduction. Not once. In fact, his professed surname didn't exist in the database either. Caroline sat back in the chair as she processed this, mouth slightly ajar with confusion. "This guy… it's fake. His documentation is completely fake. I doubt this is even his real name."

"Wow." Reiher looked at her with a frown. "Do we tell the Valesians, ma'am?"

"They should already know. Unless… his forgery was so good that the automatic system never flagged it. I've heard of chips with falsified external records loaded on board before, but you need to know the right people – and have a lot of money."

"And ministries don't have the personnel to manually check every scan. Nor the CCT bandwidth for global cross-referencing." Reiher crossed his arms to think. "Hold on. He causes an Aura sensor reading that I've literally never seen before, he risks his life to help a bunch of teenagers that are probably going to die anyway, _s_ _ome_ combination of effort between them and him kills two Petra Gigas, but they don't want anyone to know? Why not? Because his documents are fake? Hell, I bet we'd let them all in if they're this strong." His face went blank when she remained quiet. He reminded himself to maintain his discipline. "Ah… sorry, ma'am. I got a little carried away."

His words fell on mostly deaf ears as Caroline calculated her next move. She went back to the dataset and queried it for more information on the Academy students. Three names stuck out: Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Pyrrha Nikos. Of course she knew of Jacques' youngest daughter. Blake's family name was familiar, given her father's leadership position among the Faunus. Ironwood had mentioned Pyrrha in passing a few times as someone he hoped would enter Atlas Academy. Her brow furrowed again. "Weiss Schnee was one of the eight. So was Ghira Belladonna's daughter."

"Wait… really, ma'am? Gods above, how did a _Schnee_ end up out there, of all people?"

"No idea." This additional complication was the straw that broke the camel's back; for one of the few times in her career, Caroline found herself confronted by a decision she didn't think she could make herself. Consultation with a higher power was necessary. She spent a few moments organizing what she knew into notes on her Scroll, as well as copying more important data over to it. "Keep working the error log and send anything interesting you find to my Scroll immediately. I need to head upstairs," she finally added, rising from her seat.

Reiher stood and saluted her – he knew _upstairs_ didn't mean the higher levels of this building. "Yes ma'am. Good luck."

She returned the gesture and walked quickly back to the elevator for the return trip to the central floors of her installation. On her way out after she reached her floor, she caught Sergeant Holtz walking by with a clipboard in her hand. "Holtz, let Lieutenant Colonel Breitling know he's in command until I return."

This hasty order left the Sergeant a bit flustered as she turned around to look at Caroline. "Yes ma'am, but, uh, where are you going?"

Her brow furrowed hard, but she never stopped walking. "To the Academy. I don't know when I'll be back."

Caroline's destination was another set of elevators in the western wall of the building, one of which she rode up to its top floor. A short trip up a staircase brought her to the roof. Here were situated two small airship pads, one of which was occupied by a Bullhead. On the northern corner sat a small structure with windows – a little heated shack for which she made a beeline, knocking on the door when she reached it. While she awaited a response, she cast her eyes up. The sky was clear, save for thick airship traffic, as usual, but no sunshine reached the section of the city where her building stood; it was obscured by a tremendous mass of soil and rock hovering several thousand feet above her head, literally chained to the planet and secured by giant trapezoidal motion dampeners which held the chains and were sunk into concrete pads. These structures were even more massive than the industrial buildings of the sector which they occupied. This floating island was perhaps half the size of Vale, and at around each time this day in late summer it swallowed up most of the Lower Kingdom in its sprawling shadow.

Her breath emerged as foggy clouds in the chilly air as she waited for an answer. The door finally opened. A tall, gangly, olive-skinned young woman with a flamboyant blue mohawk and more than one set of eyebrow piercings looked out – that flashy style clashed hard with the somber white uniform she wore. Like Caroline, she sported rank boards, with one black diamond pip situated on each. Unlike Caroline, she only had a line of three ribbons across her right breast. "Oh, shit!" she snapped with surprise, letting the door open fully as her posture hardened into parade rest, hands clasped behind her back. "Sorry about that ma'am, I had my earbuds in."

The display earned her a rather dour look from the Colonel. "You never have your earbuds _out_ , Ensign Wei." She thumbed over her shoulder at the Bullhead. "Spool up your bird, I need to make a trip."

"Right away, ma'am." She skittered out and onto the pad to enter her airship through the open port side hull door.

After a roll of her eyes, Caroline shut the shack door for her and pursued on slower steps. A moment later, both women were in the cockpit of the vessel with the Ensign in the left seat, flicking switches and turning knobs of all descriptions. She now wore a wireless headset to communicate with air traffic control. "Destination, ma'am?" she asked while mentally dashing through her takeoff checklist.

"Atlas Academy. Direct, if possible, I'm in a hurry."

"Yes ma'am." Her next words went out over the radio. "Crystal Park Control, military traffic, call sign Vector 1, request takeoff clearance and direct to Atlas Academy via Stratos Point." Only she could hear the reply, so Wei turned to relay the answer to the Colonel. "Buckle up, ma'am, they're putting us in the slot right now, but I need to be fast."

Caroline snapped the buckles closed on her seat belt and nodded. "Do it."

Wei wasn't joking – she hurled the Bullhead into the sky and guided it toward the western side of the floating island to join the torrent of airships in transit toward the upper part of Atlas. They slipped into the queue, but at a higher altitude, which allowed them to maintain more speed for the climb. They crested its edge and were rewarded with the sight of a second gleaming city, all stainless steel and glass, whose upper frames were curved stylistically like sails on a boat. These buildings were somewhat taller than the ones below – their heights were restricted by the presence of the island itself – and reached into the blue sky. Above them floated a vast array of airships, mostly military, and most of which were at least as large as the frigates Opher had seen over Beacon Lake. Many were far larger and meaner-looking; their hulls bristled with launchers and cannon. Armed vessels were stacked thickly above a forest of cranes on the north side of the rock, where Atlas' Air Force had its main aerial shipyard and dock facilities. Towering above it all was one of Atlas' two CCT structures, clad in white and blue paint, with far fewer panes of glass than the buildings over which it stood. Caroline wasn't interested in the view; she was occupied with summarizing events on her Scroll so she could deliver them efficiently. Wei flew their Bullhead toward the south, where the skyscrapers yielded to a complex much shorter in height, whose components were constructed in an architectural style that would be familiar to those who'd seen Beacon's campus. A minute or so later they touched down gently on one of the six pads in the center of the relatively open space.

"I hopefully won't be too long, but shut it down for now," Caroline stated as she got out of her seat. They exchanged quick salutes as she departed the craft. Once outside, she proceeded on quick strides toward a three-story building that wouldn't have looked out of place among the mansions situated on the east side of the floating island. She wasn't alone out here; students packed the walkways, all of whom were dressed in the drab black and gray uniforms of the Academy. They made way for her the moment they saw her coming, wide-eyed and muttering among themselves about her presence. Once she reached the building, she walked right over to a surprised receptionist in civilian clothes.

"W-welcome?" the brunette stammered; noting the rank insignia caused her eyes to widen slightly.

"Is General Ironwood here?" A nod. "I need to speak with him."

The secretary donned a nervous smile. "He's, um, he's on the phone with someone at the moment, but..."

Caroline leaned across the desk and whispered a single coded phrase. "Puppet master."

These words, part of a standing order, served not only as a means to identify Caroline, but as a way to convey the urgency of her visit. The response from the receptionist was instant. She picked up a device – not a Scroll, but a handset whose receiver was hardwired into the building's internal system – and pressed one button. Her words were almost whispered. "Sir. The puppet master is here." Her face went blank as she listened. "Yes sir." She hung up. "Proceed to his office and go inside, he'll be ready for you shortly."

"Thank you." Up the staircase she went, then down a hallway and up another, where scattered office staff commented in whispers about her passage much like the students outside did. She reached a set of dark oak double doors, knocked once, then opened one and stepped into the office of the Academy's Headmaster. It was a grand, carpeted space with huge windows directly opposite the door and tall bookcases against each side wall. A blue banner emblazoned with the Great Seal of Atlas – a stylized torch supported by a white ring, a smaller white circle, and supporting an even smaller third white circle in the center – hung from the ceiling directly behind his desk. The man himself was seated with the back of his swivel chair toward her; Caroline stepped in front of his stately, polished wooden desk, stood at attention, and waited in silence as he continued his Scroll conversation. Her shoulders jerked with surprise at the heavy noise of the door closing itself behind her.

"Trust me, Jacques, if it wasn't important I wouldn't be in such a rush. You know how it goes. The ride never ends." He issued a wooden laugh in response to something the Schnee patriarch said. "I'm sure we'll chat again soon. Goodbye." After hanging up, he spun around to face his visitor with a sigh, rubbing at a thin, rectangular metal plate embedded into his skull above his right eyebrow. On his rank boards sat the same style of wreath as hers, but three silver stars were centered along those boards to signify his higher office. The right side of his chest was obscenely replete with ribbons. He waved off the Colonel's salute, then used that hand to smooth down his salt-and-pepper hair. "Colonel, please, sit," he said, motioning at the two couches that flanked her.

"Thank you, sir." Caroline chose the one to her left. "I apologize for the interruption."

He chuckled at this and relaxed back in his chair. "Interruption? I'm thankful for the out. Talking to Jacques Schnee is like having teeth pulled with a chainsaw made of Rapier Wasps. If the Schnee family didn't have such a stranglehold on global Dust production, I'd... never mind. I'm sure you didn't make this trip just to hear me rant. What can I help you with, Colonel?"

"I've got something you might be interested in hearing, sir." She clasped her hands in her lap and tried to figure out where to start. "Penny might have gotten a hit, but it's not something we were expecting to see. She transmitted an error log with her latest dataset, related to the Aura measurement suite. After we examined it… we're not certain it was an error at all."

Ironwood's expression became thoughtful – and slightly worried. "Is she compromised in any way?"

"No, sir. Allow me to explain. Her detection suite reported an off-scale low Aura measurement – long story short, we believe she picked up an Aura so intense that it saturated the coil array and caused an overflow, which made her sensors report a number below zero. As it turns out, the person from which she got that measurement was an individual she asked about in the previous communication." She produced her Scroll, flicked fingertips across its screen until she reached a copy of Opher's passport scan, then dropped the device on his desk so his computer could fetch the data. It was displayed on a projection screen that popped up for him to view. "This man, sir."

The General had no idea who he was looking at, and turned his eyes to Caroline for details a second later. "And this is..." he urged, loosely clasping his gloved hands.

"Opher Riese, sir, a Dust shop courier in Vale who professes Atlesian citizenship and an association with the Schnee Dust Company. I believe you're familiar with a recent incident near Beacon Academy which involved a freshman combat trial and two Petra Gigas Grimm?"

Finding this memory took Ironwood a moment of gentle eye-rolling. "I've heard mention of it in Central Command, yes, due to Weiss Schnee's involvement. I can't believe those kids survived."

"This man intervened to help them during that incident, sir. We have at least one call record between him and one of those students. That means the nine of them managed to kill two Petra Gigas – and, I'd wager, all the little Grimm that tend to follow those giant bastards." She leaned forward with a sigh and added. "Oh, sir, it wasn't just Miss Schnee, either. Blake Belladonna is on her team too."

"Chieftain Belladonna's daughter, really?" he remarked quietly, then stared off in thought. The irony of Blake and Weiss being teammates almost made him smile. "The gods have quite a sense of humor."

Caroline pressed on. "Sir… this man's passport is completely fake. He doesn't exist in the Interior Ministry database – he's never set foot in Atlas. And it's likely he's never worked for the SDC, either. They have no record of his employment." She met his wide-eyed surprise with a frown. "He made some kind of deal with the kids to keep his involvement quiet. I'm not sure how we should proceed, sir, so I came to you first. Is it possible the Schnee family might have hired someone to keep an eye on her?"

"I doubt that very much." Caroline's quizzical look got a shrug. "Why do you think she ended up at Beacon in the first place?"

She tugged awkwardly at her collar. "I… wouldn't dare to venture a guess, sir."

"Wise idea." Ironwood put some thought toward her inquiry about what sort of response this situation warranted. "Ozpin must know what we know. I understand why this man would want to keep a low profile if his passport is fake, but then again… why risk discovery by going out and helping Academy students in the first place?" He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his desk. "He sounds like the kind of person I should talk to."

Caroline nodded once. "Yes, sir. I'm a little surprised the students agreed to keep this quiet, especially from Ozpin."

"Likewise. They must have seen or done something that would raise a _tremendous_ fuss." He tapped at the holographic keyboard for a moment. "I want to get in touch with him. Discretely." A list of names appeared on the screen, though from this angle Caroline had no hope of reading them. "I'll transfer a specialist from my command to yours and have them deployed to Vale for reconnaissance. Find out what you can about the students involved, and have Penny keep an eye on them too. For now, though, continue to limit her interceptions to the campus. She'll have too much data to sift through starting next week as it is. I can't risk whatever interruptions it might cause to public service to increase her scope. I'll send the details about the transfer when I've finalized them. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir." Caroline stood up, exchanged salutes with him, and swiftly left his office to return to her headquarters.

After her departure, Ironwood continued to eye the list of candidates for transference. One name grabbed him as he scrolled down and caused a smile. "Well, she _is_ one of my most promising officers," he mumbled. "Let's see what she's really made of."

* * *

The sound of gently flowing water dominated the air; such noise was the main way Blake could keep tabs on her surroundings, as her eyes were currently shut. She occupied a floor mat in one of the cozy little rooms that existed in the meditation hall, a space little more than a small cylinder, painted in soothing pastel shades, with dim light provided by wall sconces, a few leafy plants arranged on the floor behind her, and one window above them. All noise came from the water fountains in the main hall outside, beyond a portal which had no door attached – not that there was much racket to be had. Sunset had come and gone – Blake was pretty sure she was the only person in the whole building at this point. She sat cross-legged, hands clasped in her lap, and manually adjusted her breath with each inhalation. "I can't do anything about it now," she mumbled. "Velvet is fine."

The Belladonna blood which coursed through her veins rejected this notion, of course. That started a whole new rumination about the rabbit Faunus' plight. These thoughts caused a grimace to appear as Blake lost control of her calm yet again, opened her eyes, and hunched forward with defeat. "This isn't working," she sighed through her fingers.

Footsteps reached her ears. She looked up just in time to see Weiss poke her head into view, blink, then look away. "Oh. Sorry, I'll go find another pod."

"No, it's okay. Maybe we can help each other find some peace." A little scooting made room for the heiress to take the other mat next to her. "You've been awfully quiet today."

"I've got a lot on my mind." Weiss arranged herself in much the same way Blake sat and sighed out a long breath. "I guess we both do."

"Yeah." Blake rubbed firmly at her forehead, eyes locked on the middle distance. "Are you thinking about asking to withdraw too?"

"I'm… not sure yet." She batted her white ponytail back over her shoulder and frowned. "If both of us did, what would happen to Ruby and Yang?"

"I wonder if they'd be placed together with Penny and Ciel," was the best she had to offer. Her lips twisted in a frown. "We've still got a day and a half. I might skip classes tomorrow and just work on this."

"Huh." Weiss looked over at her. "You know, fighting might be the best way to work it out. We could murder Grimm until we feel better."

That idea caused Blake to issue a snort and shake her head. "I wish it was so simple." When she laid eyes on the heiress again, however, she found no small amount of awkwardness on her pale face. "Hm? What?"

Her posture grew tense while she debated internally whether or not to reveal what she'd been up to earlier that morning. She couldn't get the words out. "It's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

 _Velvet's going to tell her anyway_. "Yes, I'm certain it'll work itself out." Weiss proceeded to relax her muscles and close her eyes, drawing in one breath.

Blake copied this; both girls tried to empty their minds in silence, but their unease sank its claws deeper and refused to be dismissed. Measured breaths became halted sighs until, one after the other, their eyes popped open again. "Ugh," the Faunus groaned, "this is useless. I wish my Scroll worked so I could talk to my friends. That might help."

"Likewise. If they'd fix the useless CCT hardware, or at least give us new Scrolls, then..." Weiss sank backwards and stretched out on her back on the floor. She stared holes in the white ceiling. "I'm not sure I was ready for all of this. The way things work here, I mean."

"I hear you." Blake produced her device to check the time. "I actually thought about trying to go home entirely, but Miss Goodwitch says our Grimm exposure is already too high. I'd have to wait."

Those icy blue eyes widened with surprise, but Weiss said nothing at first. They languished in silence for a few moments. "I don't think I have that option."

A desire not to pry outweighed Blake's shocked curiosity about those words. She processed them in silence for a while. "I… I think we should try to fight. Yang and Ruby worked their butts off for us in the first trial. Let's return the favor."

"Yes." Weiss sat up and returned to her meditation position. "Despite their tremendously irritating foibles, I'm glad I ended up with them." She immediately gagged at this. "Just… don't ever tell them I said so. I'd never hear the end of it."

Blake regarded her with a little smirk. "Now there's a secret I wouldn't mind keeping." Vaguely awkward silence lingered for a while until her yellow eyes lit up. "Hey, uh… what did you think of Pyrrha's story? Do you believe any of it?"

"I believe something happened to her, yes, but not what she thinks. None of it makes sense." Weiss thoughtfully stroked her ponytail, blank-faced and contemplative. "There's no way I'm going to talk to the magnetic field. Ridiculous." She glanced over when the Faunus giggled briefly. "What about you?"

"Maybe it's plausible. I don't know." She reached into a pocket and produced a sliver of yellow Dust. "Do you have any Dust on you?" Weiss shook her head. "Okay. Help me do a little experiment."

"Experiment?" Weiss sat up as Blake got to her feet and walked out into the main hall. A few seconds later, the heiress was in hot pursuit. "What are you planning?"

"Nothing major." She placed the crystal on the floor, then backed away from it until there were fifty feet of distance between herself and the yellow rock. Weiss joined her and stared at it curiously. "Okay. Let's try to prime it from here."

"Fine." Both girls closed their eyes and issued the conscious command that altered their Aura charges and triggered the priming process. Nothing happened, of course; they were much too far away from the crystal for their Auras to interact with it. The heiress' eyes opened first. "As expected," she stated, noting the crystal still on the floor.

"Right." Blake's feline ears twitched as she looked toward the ceiling. "This is going to sound so silly, but, I don't know? Maybe-" She never got a chance to finish. The crystal began to glow, dimly at first. Thanks to its small size, it popped the second it shone with any considerable brightness, unleashing its electric payload with a crackle of lightning and the tinny clap of miniature thunder. They stared at where it had been, mouths agape.

"D-did you accidentally…?" Weiss muttered.

"No, it would have blown up in my hand. That's why I picked one so small." They shared a stunned look. "Weiss… w-what just happened?" Warmth on her face caused Blake to touch her cheek with a finger; she found tears running down her pale skin. "Why am I crying?"

The saucer-eyed heiress was a little teary herself, but she stayed focused on the bigger picture. "It... you... at this sort of range?! We're twenty meters away at least!" The fine pile of Ash left behind also drew her eye. "We'd better go tell everyone. Now. I'm sure Ruby and Pyrrha could use it in whatever battle strategy we're planning for Fraidich night."


	14. Crash Course (Part 1)

A lull in shop traffic gave Opher the chance to continue reading the paperback book he'd bought yesterday evening: a guide about the religion which focused on the twin gods of Remnant. Seeing the icon had spurred him into figuring out what else humanity had forgotten; so far, the answer to that question was almost as grim as what they'd filled the gaps in with. Only the very basics of the religion seemed correct. Two gods built the world and ruled over it for time indeterminate, and during that reign they made the humans and Faunus. Everything else seemed to be lost – the order of these species' creation wasn't mentioned, the appearance of the Grimm failed to be addressed in any way, and nor did the authors have any clue what had happened to the Moon. Then again, science failed in the last aspect too, at least so far as he was able to determine – nobody seemed aware of the truth, with most astronomers attributing it to some sort of ancient impact event which also had effects on the planet's surface, something Opher knew was false. The worst part was all the extraneous bits that had ended up attached to the story of Remnant's creators over the millennia. The gods had issued decrees about what made a good and bad person, for example. They set out methods of worship. They declared special days for particular types of celebrations – one in the third month of the year and one in the tenth and final month.

No they hadn't. It was all a fucking lie. His brows furrowed harder with each additional word ingested until Indigo could no longer ignore his expression. "You've been reading that thing all morning," she pointed out, leaned against the storage room's exterior wall.

He looked down at his boss, who was clad in a black tank top and yet another gaudy, glaring, atrocious ankle skirt, this one bright blue plaid with harsh white trim, and shrugged. "Are you complaining?"

"Nah," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Just… you know. You thinking about going to church, or do you already?"

He turned the page and continued reading. "No. Do you?"

Her expression turned slightly hard and she averted her gaze. "What's the fucking point," she mumbled, before raising her volume and adding, "I used to when I was a kid. Haven't since I joined the Army. Schwarze does, though, every weekend."

That she didn't attend with the Atlesian was a surprise to him; he lowered the book for a moment to regard her fully. "You let her go alone? I thought you did everything together."

More neck rubbing. "Nah." To deflect his curiosity, she changed the subject. "Why is it that you seem mopey every time you come back from a solo delivery to Beacon, huh?" she asked, staring up at him.

He cocked his head, gazing back at her blankly, and decided to issue a blunt reply before they got too far down this road. "Well, I do keep running into the spitting image of my dead girlfriend, so..."

Indigo's posture became stiff as she turned away. "I am so damn stupid." She jerked with surprise when Opher patted her shoulder a few times.

He closed the book firmly and laid it on the glass counter next to the register. "I'm _mostly_ kidding. I don't know, the campus is just depressing, I guess. I can't put my finger on it."

There was an understanding of this that she swallowed with an awkward smile. Of course it was dismal; those kids were dead people walking, discarded by their Kingdoms and left to struggle until their expiration in the wilderness. Part of her began to regret making him go on these trips alone, but someone had to stay back and mind the store. Maybe, she thought, she'd switch out with him once things settled down after next week. "Yeah."

He couldn't believe that actually worked and folded his arms. "Yeah? You usually put up more of a fight than this."

"No, it's… you know, Academies aren't the most cheerful places in the world." She spent a few moments retying her thin blue ponytail before looking back at him again. "Hey, uh, wanna hit another movie after we get back from Beacon tomorrow? I'm not gonna open for the weekend, Schwarze has been on my ass about working so much and I don't actually need the money for once."

"I may want your help with something else, actually." He showed her his Scroll – on the screen was a digital copy of the lease he'd signed yesterday for his new apartment. "Feel like helping me get moved in?"

"Fu—yes!" she snapped gleefully, grinning wide. "So you picked Doctor Ives, then?"

"She'd be the closest, so, yeah, I'll try her first," he replied, smirking at the look on her face.

"Gods, Schwarze is gonna be tickled pink." She wrapped him up in a tight hug momentarily, beaming with relief. "I'm glad you listened to us. I don't want the police to have any reason to bother you again. You've made a good choice." The conversation ceased there as a customer walked in. "Welcome!"

This face was new – neither had seen the woman before, although as Opher looked her over she seemed vaguely familiar for reasons he couldn't place. The new arrival's height fell between his and Indigo's; like him, she had a pale complexion, but brilliant, icy blue eyes. Her hair, slicked back and rolled into a neat bun on the back of her head – save for a curved set of locks swept over her right eye which dropped slightly past her chin, as well as a thin, curly strand which hung down along the left side of her face – was as white as the outside of the store. Her outfit shouted _middle management position –_ a gray skirt suit above a white blouse with a red, short necktie, plus matching gray heels. Her gait bore a precise, rigid nature which Indigo recognized in short order as the motions of a soldier, though whether or not this woman was active duty or recently discharged, she couldn't say, nor could she tell to which service she might have belonged. The stranger walked toward the counter, eventually remembered to smile, and finally answered the swarthy woman's greeting. "Yes, hello," she said, thin black eyebrows knitted slightly. "I was wondering what crystals you carry for HVAC devices?"

Her voice turned out to be rather gruff – not unlike Indigo, Opher noticed. He let her handle the conversation and picked up his book again to start reading. "Are we talkin' individual apartment unit size or a whole house?" she asked, in full business mode as she leaned on the glass counter.

"A single apartment."

Indigo pointed toward the side shelves on the left wall. "Take your pick. Most of those are standard diameter, should fit anything." The woman nodded and strode over to browse those shelves. "Geez, she's a stiff," she muttered to her employee. "Never seen her around here before. Looks Atlesian."

"Well, it is a big city," he mumbled back.

"Yeah, but this is a neighborhood store. I usually know my customers." They watched her eyeball the stock for a moment; a crystal case bearing the SDC logo seemed to draw her subtle ire for reasons neither of them knew.

After this, she returned to the counter. "I'd better go check first before I buy anything. I wouldn't want to get the wrong size. My apologies."

"Nah, nah, don't worry about it. Better to buy the right thing than just anything." The two women exchanged smiles and the stranger was on her way out. Once she'd left, Indigo looked up at Opher. "Bet you a Lien she's another snowbird. Or somebody that moved down here for business."

"Probably." Opher's pocket emitted a ring, a generic tone that caused his boss to smirk. A look at the caller ID made him scowl. "Hrm."

She couldn't help but tease him about it. "Is it Schwarze _again_? Gods help me, that woman is so thirsty." Her smirk departed when she saw the glower on Opher's face. "What? It's not the cops, is it?"

"No, it's not, but I guess I better take it anyway," he said, wandering into the storage room to leave the shop through its rear exit door. "Sorry. Back in a second."

"Fine, but hurry up," she called after him, just before he walked outside.

Once in the alleyway, his expression became mildly sour as he placed the Scroll to his left ear. "I'm at the shop, you know. Didn't I ask you not to call me at stupid hours?"

Ruby's voice, not Pyrrha's, was the one that answered him. "How does this work?!" she demanded squeakily.

His eyes narrowed further. "You aren't Pyrrha."

"We can _all_ do it! Even Jaune can do it!" Her voice changed as she spoke to the kid himself off to the side. "Sorry Jaune. No offense."

"Some taken, but I understand," Opher barely heard him reply.

Her full tone returned a moment later. "How does it work? Who taught you? Can we teach everyone else? Could you? We should tell the teachers! We could help so many people!"

"Why did I do this," he grumbled lowly, rubbing at his dull green eyes.

Weiss was the next to speak to him. "It's some kind of new Aura charge state, isn't it?" she asked. "The ability to remotely prime Dust… you'd be one of the richest men on Remnant if you went public with something concrete. Why hide it?"

"Gods help me, Weiss, it's not about money!" he heard Yang interject.

"I'm trying to entice him into sharing his knowledge!" she fired back.

" _None of you are Pyrrha_ ," he cut in angrily. "I gave her this number, not the rest of you fucking children. Either she talks to me or I'm hanging up." Silence followed.

And then the redhead's voice finally arrived. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have let them talk me into this."

"No, you shouldn't have." He crossed his free arm with a powerful frown. "What do you want?"

"Well, they did bring up a few valid points, don't you think? How does this process work? Why… why did it make us all so emotional?"

The last bit caused his scowl to depart for a moment. "Eh? Emotional? How so?"

"We all cried – even Ren, and he's always so stoic. I think it was the worst for me."

Opher stared off in thought, allowing the noises of the city to wash over him as he contemplated this detail. The roar of an airship which passed almost directly overhead precluded his response briefly. "I don't know," was the answer – and this time, he wasn't being evasive. "As for how it works, I already told you. You just talk to the planet and the planet responds."

"Stop feeding us this meaningless drivel!" Weiss, again; clearly the redhead had the call on speaker. "We want actual answers!"

Answers for which they weren't ready, not even close. His glower returned. "You wouldn't get it even if I told you. Look, I'm on the clock. I'm going back in before Indigo yells at me."

"But-!" the heiress snapped just before he hung up and crammed his Scroll back into his pocket.

"Hnnn." Opher, rubbing at his eyes, walked back into the building and arrived behind the counter a few seconds later, where he found his boss on the Scroll herself. His judgmental smirk got her attention soon after he arrived.

"Don't start," she mumbled, hand over the device so the other person wouldn't hear, "I'm talkin' to mom." Her attention went back to the call as she left the counter to occupy the same spot outside he had a few moments before. "Sorry, mom, what did you say? The new guy wanted something."

He shook his head at her back and took up his book again to wait out her chat. As he returned to the marked page, however, his eyes widened with a realization. "Wait a second," he mumbled, comparing the stranger's appearance and voice to that of Weiss in his head. Before he could think too long on the similarity, his Scroll rang – a check revealed Pyrrha's number again. "What the hell." Against his better judgment, he answered. "Go away!"

"No!" Yang, _extremely_ agitated, with the subtle noises of some kind of struggle in the background. Ruby's grunting leaked through the speakers as well. "You said something about Ruby, too!" The tussle grew louder as he listened in silence; eventually, he heard the redhead herself utter something, but couldn't determine the exact contents of her statement. The blonde brawler's angry words poured through once more. "No, damn it! If there's something going on with her, I want to know!"

A blank-faced Opher held the Scroll away from his ear, hung up with a tap of his thumb on the screen, then set the device to vibrate only and jammed it back into his pocket. Indigo returned about a minute later, just as he got back to reading. "Did someone call you again? Shit, man, you're getting pretty popular," she teased.

"Yeah, I'm thrilled." He looked down when he noticed her squinting at her own device. "What?"

"This thing never seems to run out of charge lately," she replied a few seconds later. "I thought my Aura would recede after I left active duty."

"Hmm." Opher played it cool and returned to reading his book. "You can take the woman out of the Army, but you can't take the Army out of the woman, I guess."

"Cute." Had she been positioned for him to see it, the distant, unhappy look on her face as she spoke those words would have caused a _tremendous_ amount of curiosity for her employee. A whispered "Gods help me if that's true," came next.

* * *

Yang drove her fists repeatedly into the black bag hanging in front of her, each one flying with an audible grunt and landing with an even louder thwack against the hide surface. So potent were her strikes that her Aura concentrated iron in her hands as if she was attacking an actual opponent; this added a heavier quality to the noise. Sweat dripped down her forehead. "Fucking cagey asshole," she growled, throwing a right cross. "If he's so damn good at this shit, why doesn't he give us anything to go on? We're the ones fucking dying out here." A left jab. "And why the fuck is Pyrrha covering for him? We nearly died trying to save your ass. You _owe_ us." A straight right, so violent it sent the bag swinging. Behind her stood Ruby in one of the gymnasium doorways, waiting, silently, for her sister to cease the assault and notice her presence – something which only happened after Yang threw another straight right hand and paused to catch her breath afterward. "Huh?" she gasped out upon seeing her sister. "What's up?"

"You've been in here punching that thing for hours," Ruby pointed out, approaching on leisurely strides. "Are you still mad?"

"No," she lied, dabbing sweat from her face with the yellow towel around her neck. A stare from Ruby, whose hands were now on her hips, drew a scowl across her ruddy face. "Yes," slipped out a moment later.

Those silver eyes narrowed a little as Yang went back to punching out her frustrations. "Pyrrha thinks you're seriously tweaked at her."

"I am. A little." One more left hook sent the bag swinging; she paused to grab it and steady it before meeting eyes with her sister again. "Don't _you_ wanna know?"

"I..." Answering this was much harder than she anticipated. She grabbed a folding chair, sat down nearby – Yang changed her position accordingly to avoid hitting her with the bag if she struck it too hard – and allowed her brow to crinkle in thought. "I just want to get through tomorrow right now, and we need all eight of us to do that. Then we can worry about him."

Something akin to the weight that had incensed Yang with its existence on Blake and Weiss' shoulders now sat on Ruby's, dragging her down until she hunched over with her arms on her knees, staring at the floor. It disgusted her. "I don't know why she won't challenge him. I know she says his Aura is huge, so he must be strong, but… come on. She's too fucking polite for her own good. If he'd actually give us something, maybe it'll make things easier on you."

"Nnh." Her concerns were focused on her team, on Pyrrha's team, on everyone making it to the weekend alive, and no longer her own comfort. Leadership had found her without her realizing it and latched on tight. Shaky fingers rubbed at the creases of exhaustion beneath her argent orbs. "Didn't mom have silver eyes?"

All punching ceased; a breathless Yang turned to her sister, lips parted with worry about where this chat was heading. "Yeah," she finally said.

"Do you… think…" Even forming a question was impossible; she clammed up and averted her gaze. Yang was at her side in an instant. "Gross, you smell awful."

"Oh, shut up." She hugged her despite the younger girl's grunted protestations. "This kinda shit is why I wanted answers, by the way. We don't even know what he knows."

She whined her agreement, then planted her hand on Yang's forehead and tried to detach the clingy blonde. "Hrmph. Let go of me! Ugh! You stink!"

A fit of giggles seized her. "You sound like Weiss!"

"I do not! I'm not talking out of my nose and using words that nobody knows how to spell!" In this midst of this struggle, both girls noticed the presence of the redhead herself, who was standing in the same doorway Ruby occupied minutes earlier. "Oh! Pyrrha?"

"Ah, yes, I apologize for the interruption," she said through a slightly tense smile, walking toward them as they finally broke up. "I've been thinking..."

Yang, mopping sweat from her brow, cut in before she could finish. "I'm not mad. I'm just kinda annoyed. This guy has a technique in his back pocket that we've never seen before and he mentions Ruby almost by name when he talks about it? Man. I don't like it. And you're over here covering for him against us? Come on."

"No, it's not like that." Pyrrha slipped her Scroll out of its pouch on her belt and stared at it for a moment. "I'm just not sure, exactly, how to handle all of this. We've only met a couple of times, and these are probably annoying questions for him if he's in search of a new life. I understand the feeling." She smiled at Ruby's concern; one snap of her wrist flicked the device open. "But… if I had siblings, I think I'd feel the same way you do. Here. I'm sure his shop must be closed by now. Perhaps he'll be a little more willing to talk," she added, offering it to Yang.

A genuine smile broke out. "Thanks, Pyrrha." She took it, dialed his number, then set it to speaker. It rang. And rang. "Oh, for fuck's sake..."

Opher's unhappy voice burst through a second later. "What now?!"

Yang looked over as Ruby grabbed her other wrist gently, her worried eyes imploring restraint. The blonde obliged her wish with a deep breath. "Listen, man, I just want to know if I should be worried about my sister. You've got family, right?"

"Not anymore," was his frigid response. All three girls winced.

"Uh… shit." Yang ran a hand through her sweaty locks, fighting hard to maintain her composure. "Sorry to hear that, I guess? But surely, _surely_ , you get where I'm coming from."

A long, awkward pause came next, during which they exchanged uncertain looks. "Yeah, I do," he finally said, "but I don't want Indigo to hear this shit and I don't want her involved. So don't call me at work. Understand?"

"Fair enough," Ruby said, interceding before Yang could have a chance to deny him. "Soooo…"

"Was that the first time you've ever seen a flash of light like that?"

"Yes. A hundred percent yes. Yep," she replied quickly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"And your eyes were messed up afterward, weren't they?"

"Uh..." Ruby looked up at her sister, then toward Pyrrha, sharing in their confusion about how he possibly could have known. "I burst blood vessels in both, but they were okay. Nothing happened to my vision or anything."

"You discharged the power through them, that's why… and it uses Aura as fuel. I don't know exactly how it works, but I do know that it stops the Grimm – to be honest, I probably couldn't have saved all of you without it. Oh, and there are stories about others with silver eyes like yours. Apparently that's the mark of their gift."

"Gift?" Pyrrha mumbled quizzically.

"M-mom?" Yang mumbled afterward, mostly toward Ruby. "Do you think-"

She'd already decided to ask the question, despite the utter hopelessness of getting any answers. "I dunno? Uh, um, listen, this is weird, but have you ever heard of a woman named Summer? Uh, Summer Rose. My mom. She had silver eyes… do you think she could do it too? D-do you know what happened to her?" Tears gathered in her eyes; Yang snatched her into a protective hug. The cracking of Pyrrha's heart as she watched this was almost audible.

"Sorry, kid, the name isn't familiar." Opher's voice indicated some sort of emotional movement, at least – it was slightly more sympathetic than before. "What you did isn't anything to be afraid of, but I wouldn't be able to tell you how to control it if it's something you did out of panic. At least you know it's there, now, I guess. Sorry. That's about all I've got for you."

"It's okay! Thank you," Ruby said quickly, half-seriously trying to get her sister to let go of her with gentle elbows to the rib cage. "Um, right. We'll leave you alone. See you tomorrow, possibly?"

His usual, vaguely grumpy tone returned. "I doubt it, but who knows. Good luck. You too, Pyrrha."

"Thank you!" she replied just before he hung up. The redhead tucked her Scroll away with a smile. "That went well!"

"Yeah!" At last, Ruby finally slipped from Yang's grasp and bounced away a few steps. "Thanks for getting all your sweat on my dress. Really appreciate it. Dang it."

Yang couldn't help but snicker at her disgusted face. "It's a start. I don't think it's something we should rely on, though. Your Aura broke after it happened, and you had a bunch left. If he's right about it draining Aura… that's too much of a cost."

"Yeaaaah, let's forget it for now and focus on the priming thingy." To that end, Ruby produced her Scroll and started thumbing through the copious notes she'd taken over the course of the day. "We've got most of the day tomorrow to do it. Do we wanna hit the sack now and wake up super early, or try to stay awake all night and crash at lunchtime?"

"Hmm." Pyrrha joined the two sisters as the walked toward the exit together, rubbing her chin in thought. They emerged into the sunset glow before anyone could vocalize a decision; for a few moments, a flock of Nevermores at high altitude, circling Vale and Beacon in a wide, lazy arc, held their attention for some time. Smaller birds, merely indistinct colorful splotches against the sunset glow at this height, flew with those giant beasts. "I suppose we should ask everyone else first," she added at last.

"Yeah, probably." Yang flipped her soaked hair over her shoulder with a sigh. "I can't wait to get this shit over with." Beside her, Ruby made a noise that indicated deep thought; her screwed up face confirmed it. "What?"

"Should we… I dunno." Squeaky uncertainty escaped through her lips.

"Out with it, munchkin."

"I'm just thinking about whether or not we should spread this news _now_ or after the trial. Like, it could help a lot of our classmates, right?" she asked, arms swinging with every step.

Pyrrha's gait became uneven as she adjusted the fit of some of her armor. "Perhaps, but we don't know if everyone is capable of doing it. It would be awful if we offered advice that people aren't able to follow. We're still not sure if it costs Aura, either, or how much. I think we should get some battle experience under our belts first before we decide."

"That is true..." Ruby's eyes lit up with an idea. "I'll ask Uncle Qrow! I'm sure he'd know what to do! I bet he's done it himself already, he knows everything about everything."

The redhead blinked at this. "I'm a little surprised you haven't mentioned it to him already."

"I mean, we weren't able to really test anything until after his class, and I didn't wanna bring it up empty-handed." She drew her Scroll from a back pocket and flipped it open. One tap of his goofy face on the contact list called the old Huntsman. "Hiiiiii!" she chirped when he answered. "Are you still skulking around campus?" His answer caused her to smile. "Caaaaaan I talk to you for a second?" A pause. "Neat! Be right there!" After this, she ended the call.

"Oh, cool." Yang prepared to follow her, but stopped when Ruby lifted her hand. "Huh?"

"Nope. You smell like a dozen butts. Go take a shower." She made much the same gesture at Pyrrha. "Guys, it's fine. I'll meet you back at the dorms in like, three seconds." Neither girl made an effort to move. "Gooooooo. Go on! Go!"

"If you insist," Pyrrha acquiesced with a smile. She fell in with the suspicious blonde as both walked away.

Ruby watched them go for a second before turning toward Beacon Tower and dropping into something resembling a sprinter's stance. After a mental count of three, she dashed toward it, twisting into a Semblance-boosted cyclone of speed and startling a few other students who were out on the walkway. By the time she returned to her usual Ruby-shaped state, she found her uncle walking down the circular steps which surrounded the tower, hands in his pockets and grinning. "Why are you bothering me, kid?" he joked when they met at the base of those stairs. "If you're in trouble with Professor Peach, I ain't bailin' you out."

"Whaaaa? Nah," she countered with a flick of her hand. "I just need some advice. You _are_ the best, most smartiest Huntsman I know."

"Oh, okay, I get it. I'm bein' buttered up for something," he quipped as they walked away from the tower. "And don't be so mean to your dad, he's not half-bad either."

"Pssh, I didn't mean it like that." The humor slowly departed her smiling face. "Uncle Qrow… if I said I heard you could remotely prime and set off Dust, what you would say?"

Qrow's brow lifted with surprise; while this concept was familiar to him thanks to Ozpin's crew, he had no idea how Ruby had gotten wind of it – and he was sure the man in the tower wouldn't be pleased to hear such rumors spreading among his students. Worry stained his red eyes. "I'd wonder who's filling your head up with such bull—nonsense. Is this Yang playing tricks on you?"

"Nice save." Ruby added a skip to her strides as they proceeded down the walkway. "And no, no, it's just something I heard. Is it really that silly?"

He swept back his hair with one hand and looked off toward the dusky sky on the western horizon. "Come on kid, I hope you paid more attention in my classes than that. You know Dust is just a rock without the priming action."

"So you've never tried it?"

Of course he had tried it – and he'd seen it work, too, but that wasn't for Ruby's ears. Perhaps finding out where she'd heard such a thing would make it easier for him to decide what to do. "Why would I try something that's impossible?" he asked. "Seriously, where did you hear this?"

She couldn't lie to him. She couldn't hide anything either; why would she have to? Qrow was family. Ruby sucked in a little breath and put her smile back on. "Pyrrha knows a guy. Erm, I mean she met a guy."

Qrow came to a stop and looked down at her, arms crossed and consternation on his face. "A guy."

"Yeah. A guy. Um, I think he might be an ex-Huntsman. He lives in Vale now." Ruby couldn't gauge why the worry was quite so deep on his face and became slightly awkward. "He told Pyrrha about it. She told us."

He found the idea of an ex-Huntsman living in a Kingdom – or being alive at all – implausible to say the least, but again, this wasn't for her ears. "And she took this at face value? I didn't think she'd be so gullible." Dull steel in Ruby's eyes shut him up before he could get a rant going. "What, kid?"

"Uncle Qrow..." Lots of hand wringing. "She did it. We did it. We've been trying it all day, taking notes for the trial tomorrow night. We just don't understand how it works."

"Ruby, what are you saying?" He stooped to even their heights – and so they could whisper without the passersby getting a whiff of their conversation. "You know you can't-"

"Uncle Qrow." She leaned over to fire her next words directly into his ear. "We _have_. I'm telling you, we have. That's why we went back to the arena after dinner. We were testing it."

"Kid..." He wrapped her up in a brief hug. "Okay, okay. If you try to use it in combat, be careful. And… does Pyrrha's guy have a name? Seems like I need to have a word with him myself. Maybe he can teach me a thing or two."

"Yeah, but it's dumb. Opher. Um… I forgot his last name. He works at a place called Diamond Dust in the city."

Qrow's embrace became stiff for an instant before he let her go and stood up again, masking his surprise with wryness. " _Wow_. Is that really his first name or are you just messin' with me?" he asked caustically.

"Right? It's so hard not to call him gopher." Ruby glanced toward the dorm complex. "He's gonna be here for the merchant meeting tomorrow, you might be able to see him then. Anyway, I guess I better go. I wanna get Yang's stupid _sweat_ off my dress." She took an awkward sniff at the garment and gagged. "Oh, gross, why does she always have to hug me so much?"

He couldn't help but laugh at her expression. "Thanks for the warning before you let me hug you, by the way."

"Whoops!" She grinned toothily at him while backing away. "My bad! Sorry! Love you! See you later!" One wave later and she was gone, tearing off for the dorms.

Qrow processed their little chat with a swipe at his spiky hair. "Son of a bitch," he mumbled, walking the opposite way toward the minor administration buildings. "I'm damn sure talking to this guy now."

* * *

The day arrived. Ruby, Pyrrha and their teams dragged themselves through dawn with all-night battle planning and further testing of their new tactics in the combat arena – whenever it was empty, as they weren't the only freshman teams with the idea of burning the midnight oil, then crashing a few hours before the fight got started. All eight were currently in exhausted piles in their respective beds, snoozing what little remained of the humid afternoon away – Coco knew this because she'd already taken to checking on her future charges, peeking in through their doorways, looking over the rims of her sunglasses, and then departing as silently as she arrived.

Unbeknownst to her, however, she wasn't alone. Coco only noticed the presence when she withdrew from checking on Pyrrha and her team and went back into the hallway, where she laid eyes on a silver-haired girl – the same one with the rocket launcher who'd replaced her on patrol the night she ended Nebula Violette. Her pink orbs shone playfully. "You're a regular team mom already, Coco."

"Kiss my ass, Argent." Coco walked past with a snarky smile; within a few steps, Argent was at her side. "I guess I should wake 'em up soon. Speaking of, why the hell are _you_ awake?"

The powerful, stocky Argent had to grin up at her taller friend. "Ahhhh, Glynda wanted to reinforce the perimeter patrol." She walked with her arms behind her head, eyes closed, and added a groan for good measure. "We're starting early tonight. That industrial fire down at the docks in Vale attracted a lot of Nevermores."

"I heard." They walked down the stairs and into the lobby, then outside into the evening sun and heat. "Fuck, why is it still so hot? I'll be so glad when winter comes."

Argent was already sweating. "Yeah." Noise from their right grabbed both girls' focus; they watched a mid-sized airship land at pad two. "Who's this?"

"Who cares." Coco doffed her sunglasses to give them a good polish with a cloth she kept in her pocket, then put them right back on.

"You're in a bad mood today." She wandered out into the main walkway to get a peek and found a whole gaggle of people walking away from the pad toward her. "Damn. Buncha guys."

"Huh?" At last, Coco joined her to look. A few moments later, the group arrived and walked past them; three dozen or so in total, all chattering away with each other and all smiles. Toward the back she saw Indigo and Opher embroiled in a quiet conversation – she recognized him mostly by his digital camo hat – and blinked.

The stockier girl picked up on this immediately. "What?"

"Nothin'. I think I've seen that guy in the white hat before." She glanced over as Pyrrha, hair down and utterly disheveled, opened the window and stuck her head out to look. "I guess my kids are awake."

"Awwwww, how cute." Argent snickered when Coco bopped her on the head and walked away. "Good luck. I need to go get my stuff. Later."

"Yeah." She sauntered back toward the building, eyes locked on the redhead above her. "Yo, you guys up?"

"Ah, no, I am. Should we be?" she replied with a nervous smile.

"Yeah, it won't be long before we deploy. I'm going back to my room to grab my box. I won't be too long."

"Very well!" Pyrrha withdrew her head from the window, rubbed at her tired eyes, then proceeded to rouse her crew. Nora first. "Ah, Nora… Nora?" she cooed, gently shaking the girl.

"Hrrrrrrrrrmph!" She flailed briefly, nearly catching Pyrrha's face with her hand.

"Nora, it's time."

This snapped her awake instantly; she sat up in bed and looked down at her leader. "Aw. Man. I was having such a good dream."

"I'm sorry." Pyrrha looked over as Jaune sat up as well, then down at Ren when he stirred. "It's time," she repeated to both boys.

"Got it," the lanky blonde said. He hopped down to the floor and stretched while his leader departed the room and walked next door to Ruby's.

The redhead found Blake already alert and looking around when she poked her head in. "Time to go?" she asked the redhead, who gave her a nod. "Right. Okay." One punch of the bunk above her got Yang going.

"What the he-" the brawler snapped as she jerked awake; Pyrrha's presence stole her anger. "Oh, whoops. Gotcha." A shrill whistle brought Ruby and Weiss out of their sleep. "Here we go!" was her answer to their groaning.

Preparation began. They variously piled in their bathrooms to get ready, or sat on their beds, sorting ammunition and loading powder to feed their weapons while waiting for room to clear so they, too, could get dressed. Ruby and Pyrrha found themselves in the hallway together as the former paced away her nerves and the latter did some stretching. "He's here," the redhead muttered to her friend. "I saw him headed for the tower."

"Yeah? I hope Uncle Qrow gets to talk to him." Ruby patted Crescent Rose on her back just to make sure it was there. "Geez. I am not looking forward to this."

Pyrrha watched her try to breathe herself back toward calm. "We'll be fine." She looked up to see Coco, large black box in her left hand, walking toward them. "Ah, what should we call you by the way? Coco? Miss Adel? You are a sophomore..."

"If you call me Miss Adel I'm probably just going to let the Grimm kill you." Their startled looks caused her to laugh. "Relax. Coco is fine." She set the box down to fuss with her Scroll. "We're gonna gather in the arena before we deploy. 'Bout fifteen minutes."

"Okay." A curious Ruby couldn't help but stare at the box. "What's in there?"

"Heh, you'll see. Try to pick it up."

Ruby obliged her after a second or so; she found to her shock that she couldn't lift the container at all, not even with both hands and a torrent of adorable grunting. After she gave up and stumbled back, waving her hands to shake away the pain, Pyrrha tried her luck – even with her powerful frame, she needed both arms to detach the box from the floor. "Goodness me, what is in this?!" the redhead gasped after setting it down.

Coco allowed herself a few snorts before she put her Scroll away and retrieved her case, lifting it easily with one hand. "Her name is Gianduja."

"Wha—you must be _jacked_ under that sweater!" Ruby exclaimed. "I should have made Crescent Rose out of steel..." She flexed her arms, frowning at the meager biceps this act displayed through her dress sleeves.

Pyrrha had other questions. "Her name?"

"Like I said, you'll see." She waved toward one of the hallway exits. "I'll be in the lobby. Make it quick."

Ten minutes later saw them all in the round combat arena, freshmen seated on one side of it and their upperclassmen escorts clustered on the other. Without fail, the more senior students were all burly in some fashion or another, with visible scars lashing across whatever skin their various outfits left exposed. One boy was even missing his right eye, over the remains of which he wore a simple black patch. The whole assembly carried backpacks, or hip packs, or some sort of additional storage devices above the pouches they usually wore.

At the center of it all was Qrow Branwen – his attention was mostly on the freshmen. "Settle down, settle down," he said over the general din of muffled conversation. "Especially you," he added, pointing teasingly at Yang.

"Oh, shut up!" she yelled back at him with a grin.

"Love you too. Here's how it's gonna work: first three hours, you'll be with these guys over here. For the last three hours, teachers will be deployed too, for additional help if you need it. The first two trials were about seeking out Grimm and learning to hold your ground. This one is about patience and picking your battles. Keep in mind that we've got a lot of Nevermores in the air thanks to some problems in Vale, so stick to the trees. If your student advisor has some advice, I suggest you listen to it. They've got more experience than you do. Any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand. "Since this trial is so long, what if we run out of supplies?"

Qrow smoothed back his hair. "That's one reason why we've grouped you all in sets of two teams from the start. Your combined firepower should help your stores last longer. Your advisor will have some extra supplies too, but only generic ones – remember, they have their own ammunition and stuff to carry too. Learning when to fight and when not to is key to your survival. You'll figure it out as you go."

Ruby stood up next. "Are you gonna be one of the teachers they send out?"

"Probably so. I've got some stuff to attend to here 'cause of the merchant conference, but that'll only take a couple of hours – I hope – and then I'll be ready to go when the Headmaster gives the go ahead." Uncle and niece exchanged a smile and a thumbs up. "Anyone else?" No one moved to speak, so he waved toward the exits. "All right. Proceed to the pads. Good luck. See you all in a few hours."

He brought up the rear of their procession only until they left the arena and made it to the main walkway to head toward the airship pads – at this point, Qrow turned around and moved toward Beacon Tower to check on the progress of the merchant conference. As he expected, the lobby was full of people when he walked in – Ozpin's office couldn't fit them all, and he and Glynda likely only wanted to talk to the shop owners at first anyway. All sorts of little groups had formed as couriers caught up with each other, shooting about the business or their lives outside it.

And then there was one guy, off to the side, seated and reading a book alone. A white boonie hat was on his head. Qrow approached only halfway before taking a nearby chair himself and pretending to busy himself with his black-framed Scroll, just to see if anything would happen. Nothing did.

Until Opher looked up, made eye contact with the old Huntsman, and refused to disengage it. They stared at each other for ages in silence; that was fine, since the look on the lanky man's face said it all.

 _It was you_.

* * *

Dusk engulfed the Emerald Forest as the combined forces of Ruby, Pyrrha, and their teams, along with Coco, stalked through its trees. All brandished their weapons except the sophomore herself, who continued to carry hers in its black box – she also had an earpiece in her right ear, as well as subtle camera equipment in a small black device on her left shoulder. So far, their jaunt through the woods had been uneventful; wild animals prowled the scene, mostly furry little mammals that resembled a species of cat, as well as what occasional appearances of what seemed to be some sort of brown, indistinct rodent. The hooting of owls filled the air. The Nevermores, barely visible above as orbital vultures, circling endlessly, were the only Grimm they'd laid eyes on so far.

"How are you going to see with those things on?" a nervous Weiss remarked to Coco, who continued to wear her sunglasses despite the late hour.

"Don't ask stupid questions." She pushed her glasses back up her nose and kept walking. "Did any of you pack food?"

"We've got a ton of water," Ruby answered, eyes rolling in thought. "Yang is responsible for the snacks."

The brawler pulled the backpack off her shoulders and rummaged through it as they continued on. "Oh, right. We got chips, chips..." Her face went blank. "Ruby? Did you buy anything besides chips out of the vending machines?"

"Ummmm, well, they're cheap. And made of grains, so they're filling! And, uh..."

"Oh, dear." Pyrrha rubbed her chin, more focused on their surroundings than whatever misgivings Yang had about their snack supply. "How are we going to handle this? Six hours is a long time to be out here with the Grimm."

"I'm basically a defensive emplacement when I deploy my weapon, so let's find a good choke point." Coco looked back over her shoulder to check on Blake. "You look nervous."

"I think we're all a little on edge except you, ma'am," she replied, proper epithet slipping out despite the sophomore's wish for informality. "Erm, oops." She smiled when Coco laughed at this. "Hey, that's a good point… you don't seem nervous at all. Any tips?"

"Ever tapped yourself?"

Jaune went blank-faced with confusion. "Uh… what?"

"You tap yourself in certain spots and it distracts your mind. Breastbone, collarbone, temple, side of the hand, that sorta thing." Coco demonstrated this with her free hand, which she used to quickly, repeatedly tap the side of her head just in front of her ear. "Like this." She watched as they copied her – except for Ren, who wasn't nervous, and for Nora, whose attention zipped about all over the place as usual. "Yeah, you got it. Feel any different?"

"I think I have a headache now, so that's something," Weiss complained, glowering when Ruby snorted at her. Vibrations in their shoes caused all snickering to case. "What was that?"

Ruby looked toward Blake, who swallowed her nervousness and broke away from the group to try and get a better view with her enhanced vision. Seeing anything beyond the thick trees would have been hard enough in broad daylight, but the darkness made it even worse. After thirty seconds of careful walking and staring, she saw the silhouette of something large and insect-like. "Death Stalker," she whispered back to them. "Not sure how old."

"Oh, man, not again," Jaune muttered, ready to draw his sword. A shake of Pyrrha's head stayed his hand. "What?"

The redhead flashed him a reassuring smile. "Easy. Does it seem like it knows we're here?" she asked the Faunus.

Blake returned to them with a shrug. "It's walking away."

"Then we don't need to make any noise." Coco waved them in a different direction. "I'm a little surprised we're seeing big ones already, though." After this, she looked over her shoulder at Weiss and Blake, though the dark lenses hid the knowing glint in her eyes. Neither girl was paying her much attention.

"Do we try the new thing?" Yang muttered to her sister. "We could just drop one here and light it off as a diversion. Keep the bug occupied while we put distance between it and us."

"Nah, not yet," she denied quietly. "Let's wait for a fight first and see if it costs us Aura."

Their patience would soon be rewarded. Five minutes of threading through the undergrowth in the increasing darkness brought the nine of them to the top of a shallow hill. At its base swerved a small creek, one of the many tributaries that flowed into the Prisma River to their north. This valley also held a small pack of Beowolves which picked up on Weiss' and Blake's unease from this relatively close range and turned to look, charging up the slope the moment they laid eyes on people.

"Shit!" Yang snapped, flicking off the safeties on her gauntlets. She looked over as Ruby and Pyrrha tossed out Dust crystals from extra pouches on their belts and sent them down the hill. "Plan A!" she said as Coco opened fire with her sidearm. "Retreat and drop!"

"What the hell are you doing?!" she exclaimed as they began to flee. To her horror, everyone was throwing down a few crystals of dormant Dust while they ran. "You're not even priming those crystals!"

Ruby shot a look back over her shoulder as the Grimm crested the hilltop fifty meters back. "Now!" she shouted. Their silent prayers went up.

And the planet answered. Explosions and outbursts of all sorts of elements consumed the monsters; fire, lava, spherical discharges of water, blooms of ice, even pillars of soil erupted from the ground all at once, smashing their numbers in the space of a few seconds. Two stragglers broke through, but shots from Ruby and Pyrrha's firearms brought both to the ground easily. Coco, utterly dumbfounded, lowered her pistol and stared at the spot where the Dust had gone off. "How… how did you..." she said, making sure the camera on her shoulder had the best view possible of what she'd seen.

Nora rested her hammer on her shoulder and grinned. "Booo, I kinda wanted to hit one."

"Look," Jaune pointed. "I see something else."

Blake again put her vision to work, walking past him slightly to get eyes on whatever he'd spotted. Sure enough, there were more Grimm approaching where the Dust had been triggered, then milling about when they found no humans to attack. She waved at the group to leave. "Grimm. They can't figure out where we are."

"No, really, how the hell did you do that?" Coco demanded again, though her words didn't get any higher than harsh whisper volume to avoid attracting the beasts' attention.

"It's a long story," Yang replied. Her eyes darted over when Blake, out ahead of them once more to scout, came to a stop with one hand raised. "Yeah?"

"Death Stalker ahead. We're slightly pinched," she mumbled, looking around for better escape options. The Grimm to their backs still hadn't fully committed to going in any particular direction, but she swore a few of the little Ursae were looking right at her, as though they could see the unease swirling in her chest. "Ideas?"

Coco had the answer, at least for the moment. "Just go south." They fell in behind her instead, though she made sure to keep Blake at her side for vision – and to protect her first if beasts attacked. In the distance to the west, they could the echoed sounds of gunfire intertwined with the screams of a diving Nevermore. "It's already started over there."

"Greeeeat..." Ruby pulled out her Scroll and flicked it open. "Aura check, while we have time. I'm still full."

"Full," Weiss replied first.

"Yep, full," Yang confirmed.

"Ah… full," Blake added, squinting against the light of her Scroll screen.

Pyrrha's team went next as they descended unsteadily another shallow slope. "Uh, yep, full," Jaune noted.

"Full, and full!" Nora cheerfully added for herself and for Ren.

The redhead made it unanimous. "It… it doesn't cost Aura to use?" she breathed with amazement.

They all came to a stop to look at each other, which left Coco a few steps ahead of them until she, too, turned around. "Is whatever this is how you did it?" she finally asked, free hand on her hip. Their confusion – feigned or otherwise – yanked a scowl across her face. "Don't look at me like I'm stupid, you know what I'm talking about."

"Uh, well," Ruby finally answered. "No. We didn't know about this until a couple of days ago." She plucked a red Dust crystal from her pouch and pointed at it. "Yeah, so, a friend of Pyrrha's taught us how to remotely prime Dust! Go figure."

"He's not exactly a friend," she countered politely, shrinking a bit when all attention fell on her. "Can we focus on not dying, please, for now?"

"Fine, but I ain't done asking questions." All fell silent to listen to the cacophony of fighting which now reached their ears from the west _and_ the east. Coco led them southward, again with Blake out front to provide vision, but by now it had gotten so dark that Ruby felt forced to illuminate the flashlight on her Scroll so they had any chance of seeing where they were going. Pyrrha did the same a few moments later. Most of the noise was generated by shrieking Nevermores, but they couldn't see the black birds through the trees, or against the darkening sky. Instinctively, they kept to the trunks for cover. The hill bottomed out at last, although another slope rose up above them a short distance ahead. There was a jagged, rocky hole in this feature. To their surprise, Coco walked right into it and waved for them to follow her.

"Really?" Yang remarked as they all turned on their flashlights to see into the cavern. "Are you sure?"

The sophomore had her sidearm up and pointed into the darkness. "Shush. Help me clear it."

The cave wound into the soil and rock, barely wide enough to accommodate two of them walking side by side. While Coco led their charge, Ruby and Pyrrha took up the rear, pointing their weapons toward the opening in case any Grimm were in pursuit. Nothing showed itself. About two hundred meters later, it ended, widening out into a domed, oval-shaped chamber. A cursory glance revealed nothing of note, not even signs that the cave had been used by any sort of animal. "We'll stay here for a minute," she said, holstering her pistol and setting her box on the rocky ground. Less-than-enthusiastic mumbling from her charges caused another scowl. "Not for the whole six hours, calm down. Just for a minute."

"Shouldn't we go out and try to help the others?" Ruby asked, folding up Crescent Rose and attaching it to her back.

"That's a good way to get your ass killed. These trials are about living." At last, Coco doffed her sunglasses and slipped them into their pouch, which subsequently went into her pocket. "Now, then, does anyone wanna answer my questions about what the hell you guys did with that Dust?" Awkward grumbling was her reward again; she crossed her arms and glared, specifically at the two team leaders.

Pyrrha couldn't resist her dour gaze. "We're not exactly sure how it works, but… you mentally engage with the planet's magnetic field and it sets off Dust for you. Apparently it works from any distance." She smiled as Coco's glower softened into disbelief and confusion. "Trust me, we know how you feel."

"Basically, talkin' to the planet," Nora added as she rammed some of Ruby's grain chips into her mouth. "Sounds weird, right? But it works!"

"What the hell are you on about," Coco replied quietly, rubbing her brown eyes. Despite her skepticism, however, she'd seen something happen that she couldn't explain and decided to play along for the moment. "Nikos, what do you mean by 'mentally engage'?"

"Oh, ah, well… it's like a prayer." More disbelief from their advisor forced another awkward smile. She abruptly turned off her Scroll flashlight. "Say that you wanted to light a fire, but you only had crystals and no powder. This would do it." The redhead plucked a small red crystal from a pouch and set it on the floor. "Turn off your lights for a moment, please."

They obliged her with varying levels of reluctance; the nine of them now formed a ring around the dormant crystal with a bewildered Coco nearest the entrance of the chamber. "What am I supposed to do?" she asked the silhouette of Pyrrha.

Her shrug was eaten by the darkness. "If you pray, that's the closet example I can give you."

"Really." Coco lightly threw up her hands with a sigh. "Fine. Okay, sure. How do I word this, then? 'Oh, Remnant, please-'" She fell silent as the crystal emitted a glow. "Wait. I didn't prime it. Did you-"

"You'll be able to tell in a second," Ruby assured her. The light became an orange fire at one end of the crystal, which burned like a torch instead of exploding. Coco's gasp of shock put a smile on her face. "Told ya."

"What in the fuck is this?!" she snapped, dropping to her knees to examine the effect. She was even able to pick up the stone by its other end and hold it like a candle. "How?!" The tears that dripped down her cheeks sparkled in the light. "What..." Trembling fingers flicked them off of her face.

"Yeeeaah, we all did that too." Nora lifted Ren's hand with a smile. "Even him! It was adorable."

After a few seconds of drying her face, Coco's eyes went to Pyrrha again. "Damn… I've never seen this shit before. I thought crystals just blew up when they went off. Where did you learn about it?"

"So did we, but we met a guy. He works as a courier, but we think he might have been a Huntsman once." Ruby grabbed a bag of chips from Nora before she could tear it open and keep on eating. "Nora, those are for all of us! Come on!"

"Awwwwww..."

A frowning Coco continued to dry her tears; at this point, the crystal had burned too close to her hand for her to keep holding it, so she flicked it to the ground. It burned out, smokeless, into a pile of spent gray Ash. "I hope that doesn't pique the Grimm. We'll, uh, talk about this more later," she said while her charges turned their flashlights back on.

Weiss, having remained polite and quiet as long as she could, found herself thinking too much about the Velvet problem again and had to speak up to distract herself. "How long are we going to stay here? I don't have a network signal and I don't like it."

"I mean, we're under how many meters of dirt?" Yang shrugged at the heiress' glare.

"She's got a point, I guess. Come on." Coco departed the chamber and headed back through the winding cavern with the eight of them in tow. When they emerged back outside, however, they instantly regretted the decision. Nevermores filled the night sky, screaming and diving on prey which they couldn't see, but knew in their hearts were other students. All nine of them stayed close to the cave entrance as they watched one big bird fly overhead. "Fuck," she added sharply. "We might have to stay here." She flicked a switch on her black box, which dropped half of it open and exposed a gold handle for her to grab – just as one of the beasts streaked overhead, so low that its displaced air rattled the tree branches.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap," Ruby hissed repeatedly, yanking Crescent Rose into its rifle form. She glanced back in time to watch Coco's weapon bloom, a clockwork catastrophe of shimmering metal which extended and unfurled, eventually, into a six-barreled rotary cannon with a titanic drum magazine. "Remind me to squeal if we live through this."

"Oh, I will," Coco assured her with a smirk. She fed a belt from the drum into the loading mechanism, flipped a switch nearby, and spun up the barrels to feed rounds into their chambers. A few seconds of eyes-shut concentration primed the Dust loads in her bullets. Approaching wing-beats forced her orbs back open. "It's comin' back!"

"Jaune! Get behind us!" Pyrrha ordered, whipping her own weapon into rifle format and aiming down its sights as Nora and Ren prepared to hurl ordnance beside her. He obeyed instantly.

The moment the bird came into the white glow of their combined flashlights, those that could opened fire. For most, it was the cracked report of rifles and pistols; for Coco, it was the sound of a hundred sheets of canvas being ripped apart at once. Bullets poured from her gun and flashed skyward through the trees, where they bounced off the giant bird's mask but sank into its black flesh and exploded. That two-second burst tore an oblong hole in its left wing, robbing it of lift and control while dropping it into the branches as it flew above their heads. It crashed into the forest floor several meters away from them, shrieking with blind anger. Ruby finished it off, twirling into a crimson smear with her blade at her side and tugging her scythe through it from tail feather to neck. Another dash brought her back to her team. "That's one!" she gasped, "Only about a billion more to go!"

"Where did they all come from?" Blake asked as another, smaller example flew overhead.

Pyrrha aimed down her sights at it, but held her fire for the moment. "Do we go back in the cave?"

Coco's mind sizzled with uncertainty. "No, we need to stay mobile now, there's gonna be too many Grimm on the ground." Holding her massive gun and using her Scroll at the same time was difficult, even for her, but she was wont to put the weapon down in case she needed it again. "We might wanna hook up with the nearest group." To her shock, she found that Penny and Ciel, about one kilometer to their east, were alone – the advisor sent with them had somehow ended up with two teams deployed west of their current location. "Why the hell are Polendina and Soleil by themselves?"

"They probably don't need the help," Nora pointed out. "They saved our butts in the first trial. Ooo, let's go over there! I wanna see them fight!"

"Works for me. Come on. Up the hill." Scaling it was no mean feat, especially for Coco and her ponderous cannon; she ended up near the back with Weiss and Blake, who found equal trouble getting their shoes to stick to the loose soil. The dull roar of distant Grimm echoed through the tree trunks.

"Damn it!" Weiss snapped, stumbling for the third time. Blake was there to tug her back upright by the shoulder. "Thank you."

"Take a breath," she advised. It came too late; three juvenile Creeps skittered into her view and homed right in on her tension – and the heiress' too. "Targets! Five o'clock!"

All their flashlights swung over to illuminate the beasts – save Ruby's, since she was too busy sliding awkwardly back down the hillside in order to intercept the little reptiles before they could get too close. One of them she managed to catch with a swing of her unfurled scythe, splitting it in two, but the others got past her. Fortunately, Coco had her sidearm out and fired at them, wounding both long enough for Blake and Weiss to recover. One ate a rapier to the throat, while the second received enough boot stomps to the head from a terrified Blake to dispatch it. That fear only attracted more of the swift ebony lizards, whose claws had no trouble gripping the hillside as they swerved through the tree trunks. A dozen of them fell upon the group.

"Oh, come on!" Yang growled, sliding back down the hill to help her sister fight.

Gunfire at this range was impossible without risking a hit on their friends, so Pyrrha directed her team back down the hill as well. "Close in! Slash them!" she commanded, twisting her weapon back into a short sword.

"We can't stay here," Coco told them just before a metallic clank rang out – Yang driving her fist through a Creep's skull – while she dropped her heavy gun on one of the creatures, crushing it flat with a gruesome _squish_. "Back up the hill!"

"We're trying!" Weiss shot back, lashing her rapier's edge against another Creep at too-close range. One of them leaped at Blake, causing her to scream – the heiress was the first to react. "Get away from her!" she shrieked, grabbing it by the tail as it flew. Its strength dragged her to the ground, but she stopped it from making contact long enough for an overhead swing of Crescent Rose to impale it to the soil. Both she and Ruby reflexively ducked their heads as another Creep went flying thanks to Nora's hammer. They closed ranks around Blake and Weiss, with Ren using his Semblance to mask both of them so everyone else could form a coherent ring.

"Don't hold them too long!" Nora chided him between hammer swings. "You can't!"

She was right. Ren felt their roiling emotions tug heavily at his own Aura – within seconds he detached his hands from their shoulders in favor of joining his team at the front. Bladed pistols lashed out at whatever beast challenged him directly.

"Idea!" Jaune gasped out between frantic sword thrusts. "Throw Dust! Remote priming – agh! – might distract them!"

Pyrrha barely heard him over the screech of claws against her shield. "Do it!"

Crystals flew from their hands whenever they got the chance, arcing into the night and landing among fallen leaves with solid crunches. Jaune managed to hit a Nevermore above them which had gotten stuck in the thick branches after a dive; he chose to pop that crystal immediately and set the beast on fire, providing a blanket of orange light over a wide area. In this glow, Ruby saw more Creeps coming through the trees. "Set them off now!" she yelled.

In seconds, they were encircled by another fireworks display of Dust, a ragged circle thirty meters away made of fire and water and ice which swallowed up only some of the monsters, but distracted all of them, even the ones they were currently fighting. Stabbing or slashing them to death became easy; Coco drew her pistol again to fire at the more distant creatures, a salvo soon joined by Ruby and Pyrrha as they returned their arms to rifle form. Mopping up the beasts took less than a minute with all of them shooting. "Damn!" the sophomore chirped. "I wish somebody had showed me this earlier!"

Yang examined her bloody knuckles, grinning through the pain. "Yeah, no shit. I can't wait to figure out what else this guy knows."

Enough of a pall had fallen for them to try moving back up the hill again, although Nevermores continued to fly above the forest canopy. Coco lagged behind a bit thanks to the weight of her cannon. "What's his name?" she asked halfway up the slope. No immediate answer came, which caused her to urge one out via an exaggerated clearing of her throat. "You do know his name, I hope."

"It's Opher. I'm not exactly sure how he says his last name, but it's spelled R-i-e-s-e."

While Pyrrha's team looked toward her with surprise – save Ren, of course – Coco herself just busted out laughing. "Really? Gods help me, what a name."

"Yeah, it's, uh, not as funny as it used to be," Ruby said awkwardly, rubbing the nape of her neck. As they crested the hill, they saw a torrent of Grimm – Ursae, Creeps, the occasional Beowolf, even a Taijitu – all with their backs to the students and heading toward the east. "Um…?"

"Shit, they might really need help after all," whispered Yang as she fed her gauntlets a fresh belt of shells. "Come on. Let's sneak after these bastards and return the favor." Some of the nightmares detected Blake and Weiss again, turning to investigate their turmoil, then charging when they laid eyes on the nine of them. "Oh, fuck me, not again," the blonde complained, feeding her gauntlets a fresh belt of shells.

* * *

Couriers were spread to hell and back on Beacon's campus – Ozpin and Glynda wanted another closed-door chat with the Dust shop owners for reasons Opher didn't know and couldn't make himself care about. By now, night had the whole sky in its clutches; the broken moon rose in the west over the distant sea. He wasn't alone in the dining hall, however – a few other couriers were around as well, chatting it up among themselves and laughing. The guest at his long table was different. Qrow, cup of coffee in his hands, stared across the table at him. "I know you've got questions."

"That's an understatement," was Opher's reply. He gazed coldly at the old Huntsman from underneath the wide brim of his hat. "You were watching me."

"Yeah." A sip of coffee, then a facial twitch at how bitter it was. "Your entry into Vale was a little suspicious, to say the least."

Opher had extreme doubts that someone who knew the true art – especially the type required to transform – would lower themselves to doing government work; he suspected Qrow answered to someone else. Who it might be wasn't terribly important, for now. "I've behaved myself."

Another of sip of coffee; Qrow never lost his mild smirk. "You've done more than that. Rumor is you helped some kids out in the Emerald Forest a few days back."

A nagging similarity finally bubbled to the surface of Opher's mind – this guy looked and dressed like someone, a resemblance which up to now he couldn't place. That likeness provided an answer for how he'd heard about the incident. "She told you, didn't she? The red cloak girl. Is she your daughter?"

At last, the smile departed his worn face. "She's my niece. Her name is Ruby."

"That only answers my last question."

They engaged in another staring contest. "No, she didn't. But news travels out here." People walking by to exit the dining hall forced a brief pause before Qrow added lowly, "Did you do it?"

Whether or not this man was merely a concerned uncle or had some other game in mind, he couldn't say, but for now Opher leaned toward the former; Qrow's fixation on the trial, not his entry into Vale, contributed to this assessment. He shrugged at this and looked away, elbows rested on the table. "Yeah. I did it."

The only sound after this was that of Qrow swishing what coffee remained in his mug – his smirk was gone, replaced by a smile whose tone approached grateful curiosity. "Why risk your neck for a bunch of kids you don't even know? You could have gotten exiled. Hell, you still might if too many people find out."

"Uh huh. 'Man risks life to save kids, is exiled' would be a great headline, wouldn't it?" He shifted on the bench to stare out one of the grand windows at the dark campus beyond, though only momentarily. His eyes went back to Qrow. "Does it _really_ matter why?"

His coffee supply exhausted, the old Huntsman leaned forward, glaring slightly. "Little bit. I don't want Ruby involved in something stupid." No answer, which caused his glare to deepen. "I ain't accusing you of anything, by the way. Bad guys don't go into that death trap to help Academy students. I'm just looking out for Ruby."

Quiet seconds passed. Opher decided it wasn't this man's business precisely why he was out there, stood up, and realized that they were now the only ones left in the whole dining hall – which was the only fact to put any emotion on his face. He frowned gently. "There was a question I wanted answered – and no, not about your niece." He removed his hat to shake some of the wrinkles out of it before pulling it down over his head once more. "And there's nothing stupid for her to be involved in. Maybe I just got tired of watching people die when I could do something about it."

"I know the feeling." Qrow also stood up, but this was in reaction to a loud, if distant, noise from outside. "The airship's leavin'?" he asked out loud, walking over to look out the door with Opher not far behind. Sure enough, they could see the hefty bird lumbering into the night sky with a tsunami of Bullheads in formation to make sure it reached Vale. "Did you just miss your ride?"

"No, Indigo would have been messaging my ass off. And I told her where I'd be." Just to be sure, he checked his Scroll – as expected, there were no missed calls or texts from his boss. "The hell?"

Qrow walked outside and down the steps to watch what unfolded next. A flock of Nevermores descended on the lumbering airship, forcing its escorts to break off and engage them; monster and machine alike traced dizzying curves over the campus as a full-scale air battle commenced. Ordnance went flying from Beacon's grounds as well, in the form of a launch of some kind of rocket toward the black birds, which was shortly joined by small arms fire whose presence was noise only, since none of the rounds were tracers. Both men jogged away from the dining hall and toward the courtyard as a Bullhead flew directly over, guns blazing while it made a pass against one of the angry Grimm. "Shit," the old Huntsman said. "Maybe you got lucky." He ducked instinctively as another Nevermore dived overhead and split a pair of Bullheads screening for the larger airship, which shrank glacially into the night over Beacon Lake.

Standing beside him, Opher showed no outward concern about the screeching beast and instead produced his Scroll to see where the hell his boss was. "I don't know if you've looked outside, but..." he said when she finally answered his call.

"Yeah, I know. Where are you?"

"In the dorm complex headed toward the courtyard." Opher glanced up as another rocket went flying into the starry sky – this one clipped a Nevermore's wing and sent it crashing right into the forest. A Bullhead swooped down and applied its own gunfire to make sure the monster stayed down before climbing sharply to rejoin the bigger fight. "Are we stuck here for now?"

"Not if I can help it. I'm coming to you. Hang on."

Opher blinked at this, but had no chance to retort as she hung up immediately after. He tucked his Scroll away and looked toward Qrow. "This isn't how I expected my night to go," he admitted through an idle smirk. While he spoke, upperclassmen with ranged weapons trickled from every building and, after various amounts of preparation or aiming, shot up at the Grimm. "Maybe we should find somewhere with a roof."

Qrow had the perfect counter for this passive idea and folded his arms. "Or maybe you could do whatever you did to help Ruby," he muttered over the din of battle. "We could use the firepower, especially since I ain't got Harbinger on me." The confused look he got wasn't wholly unexpected. "My sword."

"Right." An explosion in the sky caught their gazes – one of the Bullheads plummeted past the distant edge of Beacon Cliff, belching orange flames and smoke as it fell, with two of the giant black birds in pursuit to confirm their kill. Another of the fast airships was jumped as it tried to assist; two more birds knocked it around until it lost lift and crashed into Beacon Lake along with the other fighter it was trying to save. His brow furrowed hard. "Keep this to yourself." Up went his left hand.

"Keep what-" A snap cut him off; the nearest Nevermore, who flapped above their heads not five hundred feet away as it tried to find an opening in the gunfire to attack the students acting as anti-aircraft artillery around them, suddenly burst into blue flames so intense that they reduced the whole beast to powder in seconds. A vicious stabbing sensation pulsed through the old Huntsman's entire body for a split second. "Wha… what was-" he gasped, almost in pain. It wasn't a completely unfamiliar perception, but the intensity was breathtaking.

"The fuck was that?" they heard one of the students say.

"Who cares, keep shooting!" a girl answered while reloading her heavy rifle.

"Looks like you felt it." Opher grinned at Qrow before adding, extremely quietly, "And now you know how I knew. Magic sees magic." Another snap, another Nevermore brought down in brilliant azure fire, another round of vocal confusion from the students scattered across the walkway before they opened fire on new targets.

Seconds later, Indigo threaded her way through their number and walked over, her long, thin ponytail bouncing with each step. Her instant inclination was to scold her employee for being in an open area and therefore, she thought, vulnerable. "There you are! Why the hell are you standing out here?" she huffed, then looked to Qrow. "And who's this?"

"Eh, don't mind me, I'm just a teacher," he said, finally regaining his snark and grinning down at her. "I better go get my weapon. Good luck," he said to Opher before quickly taking his leave.

He wasn't the only one seeking to arm themselves. Indigo dragged Opher by the wrist over to the girl with the heavy rifle – she was in the process of raising its muzzle skyward in search of targets while Bullheads and Nevermores danced angrily above them – and yelled, "Hey, kid, this is gonna sound weird, but I need your piece. Goodwitch's orders."

"What the hell are you on about?" she fired back, confusion and annoyance in her gold eyes. "This is _my_ gun." She watched Indigo fuss with her Scroll for only a moment before her eye went back to her scope. While she aimed, Indigo held the device to her right ear. Glynda's voice leaked out. "Lady, get that damn thing away from-" Silence. She lowered her weapon. "Ma'am, I don't even know who this person is!" she eventually fired back. Another pause. "She's… she's in the Army?" The girl processed things for a few more seconds with a frown, but flicked the safety switch on the left side of the gun's enormous magazine well and held it out for Indigo to take. "Fine. But bring it back in one piece, you have no idea how much this damn thing cost me. Oh, and it's zeroed to 800 meters."

"That'll work. Don't worry, I'll treat it like my own." Indigo easily hefted the weapon in one hand and put away her Scroll with the other. "Do you have a bi-pod for this thing?" The girl shook her head. "Damn. All right, I'll make do." She finally turned to Opher. " _Y_ _ou_ get inside. I'll be back shortly." One more turn to the student to receive some extra magazines full of ammo, during which Opher failed to heed her orders. "Go on! Get!"

He regarded this instruction with blank-faced refusal and crossed his arms loosely. "And where are you going, then?" he asked. While everyone around him – including Indigo – ducked or flinched when a Nevermore streaked by overhead, he remained unmoved, eyes firmly on his boss.

"I'm gonna board a shuttle and help snipe the Nevermores outta the sky," she answered plainly. "Won't take me a minute." That felt like the end of their chat, so she proceeded at a sprint toward the airship pads. Only when she passed the central statue in the courtyard did she realize her employee was in hot pursuit. "What are you doing?! I told you to go inside!" she called back over her shoulder, her voice fighting the roar of a Bullhead's cannon as it flashed by above.

She slowed to yell this, so he ran past, firing a "Do you have time to argue with me?" her way as he went.

"Damn it," was her muttered response. She caught up to him at pad three, where the modest little cargo shuttle was waiting for them, engines at idle and rear door open. "Are you actually stupid?" she spat at him as they walked up the ramp together.

"Probably, but I bet I'm also a pretty good bi-pod." He tapped his left shoulder with a grin.

"You-" Indigo sighed at him en route to the cockpit door, where she stuck her head in and spoke to the female pilot. "Punch it. Get us airborne." After a nod from the pilot, she walked back toward Opher just in time for the lurching motion of takeoff to knock her around slightly. He absorbed the jolt much better than she did, since he wasn't holding anything. "Fine, you asshole, take these mags, turn around, and get on your knees."

"Goodness, on my knees? In public?" he joked while accepting the magazines. "You're bold."

"Oh, shut up!" Indigo dropped to a knee herself behind him and rested the barrel of the rifle on his shoulder. "Duck down a little – and take off your hat, I can't see past the brim." He obeyed, holding it in his right hand. "Down a little more… okay, stop," she said, cutting off his subtle adjustment. Now it was a matter of finding the happy horizontal medium – barrel far enough forward so his face wouldn't be caught by gasses exiting the muzzle, and far enough back so hot brass cases from the ejection port wouldn't clip him in the back of the head or shoulders. This took a moment. "Okay. Hold that spot as best as you can. I'm warning you now, this thing fires 14.5mm cartridges. It's gonna be loud."

"I'm sure I'll be fine." Both of them had problems with forces induced by the rapid banking of the airship as it entered the furball. "I'm more concerned we're gonna fall out."

"We aren't going fast enough." Indigo peered through the scope as her first potential target fell in behind them, flapping its wings and screeching with rage. "Clench your teeth, new guy, here comes the noise." Just before squeezing the trigger, she activated her Semblance, which embraced the bullet just after it flew from the muzzle – with a _tremendous_ crack, as promised – and used her power to curve the shot toward her target for a second to counteract wind resistance. The heavy round struck not the armored mask of the beast, but tore through its left eye instead. When its payload exploded, the beast tumbled lifelessly toward the ground. "That's one! Hey, you are a pretty good bi-pod."

Opher barely detected her over the immense ringing in his skull. "Do bullets normally curve upward?" he asked too loudly.

"Nah, it's my Semblance." They fell quiet to lean into another turn, then for Indigo to steady her aim again. A Nevermore darted by from right to left in pursuit of one of the Bullheads, but she stayed her finger until their path brought them back around in a head-on approach. As soon as the Bullhead pulled up, she loosed another shot. This one curved as well, though it flew into the bird's throat and exploded, which wasn't enough to kill it. This _did_ attract its attention, however, and the chase was on – it gave up pursuing the nimble fighter and fell upon their lumbering shuttle instead, wings beating furiously. "Sorry! I gotta cycle fast!" she yelled before pulling the trigger again. This resulted in a bullet flying directly into the Nevermore's open beak, which caused an explosion of fire to erupt in its craw a second later. It kept flying, every second and angry thrash of its wings bringing it closer. Growling, she fired as fast as she could cycle the bolt. Two more curving bullets into its open maw finally brought it down just as the pilot went into a panicked left turn.

At last, he decided to take things a little more seriously and directed his Aura to out-heal the damage she was doing to his hearing. He correctly guessed that the open hand now by his side sought a fresh magazine, which he provided. A snap at his back told him she'd loaded it. "Do I get hazard pay for this?" he asked during a lull. "Or overtime?"

"You volunteered." Beacon Tower zipped quickly across their sight, as did several more of the huge birds and the Bullheads so dizzily entangled with them. She grinned at his blank look.

"And you didn't?" he asked.

"Uh..." Truth be told, this was a chance she couldn't have passed up even if she wanted to. All she could do was shrug at him and return her right eye to the scope. "If I can help these kids… I should. Like you did with the delivery, except I deliver bullets."

He now wore the grin she'd just lost. "Am I rubbing off on you?"

Before she could answer, a violent buffeting of the shuttle sent both of them flying stiffly into the left-side hull; Indigo squeaked in pain with the impact and lost her rifle, which slid out of the airship and dropped off the end of the open ramp as the pilot suddenly threw the airship hard right. Another Nevermore, this one a smaller and more agile juvenile, appeared not fifty feet away from the rear hatch. "Fuck!" she screamed, scrambling on hands and knees after the lost gun. "Oh gods, oh gods, no, oh gods..."

The monster screeched lustily at her burning terror and charged through the air to consume its source. Opher jerked to his feet, grabbed Indigo by a shoulder, threw her behind him, and pointed his right palm at the bird in nearly the same motion. Instead of using magic – which may have still allowed the monster to collide with their vessel as the force dissolved its ebony bulk – he chose an outburst of wind and fire Dust to force it back and set it ablaze. This exited his palm as a whirling red tornado of flame; upon contact with the Grimm, it drove it backward, embracing it in fire and allowing the shuttle to gain precious distance.

"What… what the hell?" a startled Indigo mumbled, clinging to his side with both hands. She watched the Nevermore burn until its wings lost too much of their structure to keep it airborne and it started to fall. "What the fuck did you-" Something else replaced it in the sky, a small, high-speed projectile whose exhaust trail indicated it was launched from Beacon's campus below – and it was streaking right toward them. She only needed an instant to identify the danger it posed. "Incoming!" she shrieked, pushing him down against the wall and lying on top of him with an added "Get down!" for good measure as the rocket exploded somewhere above and to the left of the rear hatch. Damage done by the impact sent the airship out of control for a second, which threw both Opher and Indigo apart, then against the ceiling of the hold. This knocked her out, but didn't break her Aura; his Aura-focused iron armor tanked the contact so well that he dented the metal hull without harm. A hand around her arm kept her from sliding out of the airship to her death when it suddenly climbed, while he nailed himself to the floor with expulsions of ice from his free hand.

"Fly-by wire is shot!" the pilot screamed from the cockpit, apparently to someone on the radio. "I'm on manual reversion! Number one engine is on fire!" The airship's nose dipped back toward the ground. Opher dismissed his icy shackles and grabbed Indigo into his arms before allowing himself to slide into the cockpit through its open door. He found the left-hand glass shattered and considerable damage to the control panel – as well as to the pilot herself, who had shed her helmet and bled from terrible wounds on her head inflicted by the shrapnel of the explosion. Her right eye was completely destroyed. "I'm sorry, I can't… I can't help us anymore," she sobbed weakly, fighting the control stick with what remained of her dwindling strength. Death, in the form of Beacon Lake, drew closer to them at blistering speed.

"Don't worry, I'll do the work." He strapped Indigo into the co-pilot's seat and stood in the gap between, one hand on the back of each seat, totally expressionless. The air around him glowed subtly as his Aura attained so powerful a charge that its presence excited the molecules. Gravity Dust was the first type he discharged, a bubble of force which embraced the airship against Remnant's pull and brought its speed to a crawl. Now in command of it, he turned around and pointed both hands out the cockpit doorway toward the open rear hatch and ejected high-velocity torrents of yellow fire from both palms to provide thrust – this caught a pair of Nevermores which had swooped in for the kill thanks to the pilot's suffering and shattered both like glass. "Listen to me. I'll keep us upright, but you need to steer us. Toward the forest."

"I'm..." The pilot gasped for air through gritted teeth, volcanic agony soaking into her bones. "I'm on it." She took charge of the stick and flew the airship once more as Opher became its engine. While it wasn't the easiest thing in the world, the battered little shuttle managed to lumber along, shaking and creaking and complaining, but airborne. "How in the gods' names are you doing this..." she groaned, pointing her bird toward the endless expanse of trees. By now, they were gaining altitude with the fury of Opher's fire.

"We'll cross that bridge later." Beyond the torrent of his flames, he could see the remaining Nevermores falling into a line to pursue – attracted by the incessant triggering of his internal Dust supply, which was the reason he wasn't using magic – and the Bullheads sliding in behind them for easy kills. As the shuttle languished over Beacon's campus toward the northeast, the Grimm were mowed down in a hail of cannon fire and, for whichever of the black birds got too close, his unholy eruption of Dust. He glanced back when he felt the airship losing altitude again. "Hey, what's going on?" No answer, so he looked fully and found the pilot had run out of time; she was slumped forward against the panel, lifeless. "Shit." His attention went back to controlling the geysers of flame. He found time for a respectful invocation: _May the gods ever g_ _lorify_ _your spirit_ , he said, in a language nobody on the planet could have understood. Another look back alerted him to how fast the forest was approaching their wounded bird. With one hand he wrapped the unconscious Indigo and her seat in a cocoon of rock, while he provided spurts of wind and fire out the back of the vessel to buy himself as much time as he could before they both collided with Remnant again.


	15. Crash Course (Part 2)

They could hear sound beyond the jagged walls of their icy fortress – a construction built by remotely primed crystals of Dust and some swift reinforcement by Weiss' own stores of blue powder. It was universally Grimm; reptilian emissions of hate combined with scratching and clawing as the monsters tried to climb the sides and get to the fleshy containers of emotion within. But as it continued to hold, they continued to relax; the break was a necessity regardless of their unease, since the barrels of Coco's ponderous gun, as well as the edges of Penny's sword array, glowed red with the warmth generated by firing at or striking down the murderous ebony tide. The sophomore took this chance to reload her gun and pop water Dust crystals to suck the heat from its barrels. "How in the actual fuck do you throw your swords like that?" she asked Penny, who was engaged with examining the edges of her weapons. "I can't even think that fast, much less swing an arm."

"I'm cheating a little bit," she replied with a beaming smile. The worry in Ciel's eyes went ignored for now. "No, really, they're made of an alloy which is extremely responsive to my Aura charge. Physics does most of the work!" Her green eyes took in the amazement of the other eight kids, which again made her smile – even if they were in relatively bad shape besides Ciel and herself. Even Coco had suffered. The right sleeve of her flamboyant mocha sweater was gone from the elbow down, replaced by claw marks along her forearm which were currently being healed by her Aura. "See, I was being serious!"

"Penny, 'I throw swords at them until they stop moving' is a _gross under-representation_ of what I just watched you do," Weiss stated with bewildered exasperation. She leaned awkwardly on her rapier, using it to bear some of the weight that her damaged left leg couldn't.

"Wait, gross?" Ruby – the least damaged of the nine who had suffered injuries, though still with shredded pantyhose and a slash on the back of her left hand – added a second later, unsure why that word existed in her teammate's statement when it didn't really seem to fit.

"In this context, it means large," Blake advised her, sitting cross-legged on the grass in a futile attempt to slow her racing heart. She looked up when Yang bent down to dab some crimson off of her pale forehead, despite bleeding far more heavily from her own battered knuckles. "Oh, um, thank you."

The blonde fired Blake a wink while Ruby contemplated Blake's answer. "Ohhhhh, right. I guess words mean things. I mean, they mean lots of things." She ignored snickering from her sister and looked at her Scroll. "Three hours to go! Uncle Qrow and the other teachers should be out here soon to help everybody. Aura check?" Her face screwed up when she looked at her team, then Pyrrha's. "May as well hear the bad news now..."

The redhead and her crew were seated as well – Jaune, in fact, had chosen to lie down. Pyrrha, missing some of her armor and bearing cuts all over her arms and face, also wore a frown while she fumbled for the pouch which held her Scroll. "I've got 66 percent." She looked down at her blonde teammate, nudging him with a hand. "Jaune? Are you okay down there?"

"I just need a minute," he wheezed in reply. While he lacked the same number of visible gashes as most everyone else, an accidental hammer strike from Nora had left him struggling to catch his breath. His entire torso throbbed with pain. "Is this what a nail feels like?" he joked, mostly for the benefit of the girl herself, who was knelt by his other side and holding his hand. Her expression indicated that the attempt fell flat. "I'm kidding, Nora, it's cool." Just afterward, he finally managed to produce his own Scroll and look at it. "Oh, uh, 57 percent."

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, trying not to drip blood on him from the thin strikes across her forehead and cheek. "I'm really sorry. I didn't see you. I'm really sorry." She looked back at Ren, whose hand was on her shoulder. "Hey, can you check my gauge for me?"

While he did so, Jaune forced himself to sit up and smile at her despite the considerable agony that action caused him. "Nora, listen. If anyone here knows about screwing up, it's me. It's okay. I promise."

"70 for her, 48 for me," Ren mumbled to Pyrrha after he finished.

Nora glanced over at him when he spoke and winced at the awful gouge which streaked across the back of his right thigh. Tears glittered in her bright eyes. "Yeah, but your screw-ups are funny. This wasn't funny."

Ruby walked over and stooped down to whisper to the redhead. "We can't keep this up, even with the remote priming thing. If Blake and Weiss don't calm down soon..."

"Yes, I know," Pyrrha sighed, her eyes closed with resignation.

After she fell silent, Nora went back to sniffling; when her eyes came open again, they landed on something in the night sky that grabbed her concentration. A little airship, trailing smoke and fire, cut lazily across the face of the Moon directly overhead. As she watched, it expelled a torrent of yellow flame from the rear cargo hatch. "Um, guys?" she said, pointing her free hand toward it as it flew. Their looks went skyward just in time to see a second emission of flames.

"Uhhhhh… that isn't a Bullhead, what the hell is it?" Yang asked, tracking the vessel until it went out of sight behind the forest canopy. Even the act of shielding her eyes against the harsh moonlight drew a hiss of pain. "Do airships usually, I dunno, do _that_?"

"It's not unheard of, no." Weiss shrugged at the looks she got from her team. "Someone on board one of our – the company's – cargo airships accidentally primed a case of fire Dust powder once. In their panic, they accidentally primed a whole lot more Dust and nearly the entire hold went up. It looked rather like that, actually." She scratched at the cuts across her right cheek with a frown just as the heavy, scraping sound of the stricken airship's impact reached their ears. The sharp cracks of trees being snapped were audible too. "That sounded close."

"Really close," Ruby agreed, looking in roughly the direction where she had heard the noise originate. "Should we go look?"

"Nobody could have survived that, forget it." Coco glanced up as the girl continued to bounce anxiously on her feet. "What?"

"Uh oh, here comes a mom moment," Yang warned her teammates quietly while eyeballing her sister.

Weiss and Pyrrha snapped their eyes over to her. "A… what?" the heiress asked.

Ruby walked toward the much taller Coco and pleaded her case. "If somebody did make it, though, um, shouldn't we help them? We're probably the closest. Hey, I'll go! I've got a ton of Aura and I'm really fast, no problem. I'll be back in a shake." She glanced over as Yang appeared by her side. "Okay, we'll go, because she's never going to take no for an answer and we don't have time to argue."

"Don't be stupid. Look at us, we're in no condition to go running off and playing hero. My job is to keep you alive, your job is stay alive. That's it." Coco, satisfied with the state of her cannon, folded the weapon back up into its case. "Besides, if someone _did_ survive, the Grimm are gonna be on them in a second. It's already over for 'em."

The sisters were unswayed by her words and exchanged nods, gathering their courage for the battle ahead. "Then we need to hurry." Yang looked back at Weiss and Blake, then toward Pyrrha and her team, then, finally at Penny and Ciel. "You can hold it down here, right? I know we're all a little fucked up, but this ice wall should hold long enough for us to bust out and go check the crash site real quick."

"Certainly. We've got plenty of spare Dust crystals between us," the redhead assured her, forcing her smile to remain a smile and not twist into a grimace. "With Penny's and Coco's help, well… I don't think we'll have much trouble now that the Air Force seems to have killed most of the Nevermores."

"Great!" Ruby flashed _everyone_ in sight a thumbs up. "Okay, we'll be right back!" Coco's firm hand on her shoulder stopped her from going anywhere. "Uh… what?" she asked, unwilling to test the girl's strength by trying to yank free.

Something – though she found it impossible to exactly identify what – about Ruby's attitude cracked the weathered cynicism in Coco's spirit and spurred her to take charge of the problem. "Like I said, _your_ job is to stay alive," she said, peering down over her sunglasses. "I'll go check it out."

"I'll go with you." Ciel stepped away from Penny and walked over to the pair. "She's got the firepower, I've got the agility – and almost a hundred percent Aura." A moment went by as she snapped a fresh magazine into her silvery assault rifle. "Penny can stay here with you to guard this position."

"Affirmative!" the android chirped. "My swords have cooled down! I am fully combat ready!" Giggling from Yang caused her to smile.

"All right. We'll be right back." Coco waved her escort over toward the ice wall. "You got some fire on you?" A nod in response; the sophomore looked back at her other charges. "We're making a hole, cover us."

They breached with a primed fire Dust crystal from Ciel and were met by a couple of young Ursae that Penny shredded in a second with her whirling blades, but that was all the resistance they encountered. As the two girls emerged and entered the forest, they heard the pops of crystals behind them to restore the ice over the noise of the undergrowth that rustled around their legs. A few yards away, Coco saw a flickering light through the tree trunks and pointed. "Fire. Ten o'clock, maybe half a click."

"But no Grimm," Ciel replied quietly. The scope of the conflagration became clearer as they shuffled along; several trees had been caught on fire on the edges of a short gash caused by the impact of the airship and its slide through the forest. The wreck had come to rest in a circular clearing, where some of the grass around it was also set ablaze. Crackling of flame became the dominant noise as they closed the distance even more. Ciel used the limited optics on her rifle to scan the area. "I still don't see anything, but my scope isn't the greatest."

Coco used her Scroll flashlight to help, but its output faded against the oranges and reds of the fire. Acrid smoke stung their nostrils. "There's no way anybody made it out of this," she muttered as they fully entered the clearing. In a broken, twisted pile sat the little shuttle, nestled against the remains of a needle-leafed tree whose trunk it had broken halfway up, sputtering tongues of flame into the night air. Fuel leaked from its engine nacelles into the long grass. A cursory sweep of the scene with her flashlight drew attention to a human form resting against the trunk of another tree on the other side of the open space. "Yo, look." She approached carefully, Ciel at her side, and found a barely-conscious Indigo waiting. "Is she…?"

"Where-" Alertness found Indigo in full and in a hurry; she jumped to her feet, ignoring the pain of the myriad cuts across her arms and the rips in her long skirt, and stared at the wrecked airship – she didn't even notice her company until ten seconds later. "H-have-" she gasped, choking on her own breath, "have you seen anyone else? I w-was with a guy… a-and..." Monsters in the trees howled lowly in response to her trauma. She stumbled between Ciel and Coco, who parted to give her space, and toward the airship. "I fucking killed him. I can't believe this shit. I should have known he wouldn't let me go alone. How did… how did I live? I… I…" Her words became more like panting the longer she spoke. She grabbed the sides of her head and sucked in air rapidly despite the terrible burning its smoky composition inflicted upon her nose and throat.

"Do we knock her out?" Ciel asked lowly. More beastly howling followed her words.

"I'm not dragging around an unconscious woman for however long it takes the teachers to get out here – if they come at all. You saw the shit going on over the campus." Coco drew her sidearm and ejected its loaded magazine, yanking back the slide to dump the chambered round into her hand, which she then slipped into a pocket. A different magazine went into the pistol next. The open-mouthed awkwardness on Ciel's face caused her to smile weirdly. "Sucks, but she's gonna die anyway. Go back. You don't have to watch this."

"But..." Ciel watched Indigo sink to her knees; one sob left the woman's lungs before she fell silent, struggling visibly to regulate her breaths. Coco's waved hand in front of her face brought her back to the present. "I'll watch your six at the treeline. Do what you need to do."

"If you insist." Coco watched her go for a second before walking over to Indigo and pointing the pistol at the back of her head. "Gods have mercy on us bo-" Too late; the woman was now looking at her, eyes glassy with regret. The expression stayed her trigger finger.

The words that came from her mouth next weren't even on the same planet as Coco's expectations. "Oh, right, the protocol," she stated, her orbs sliding closed. On her knees, she shuffled in place until her pistol was aimed squarely at her forehead. "I've had this coming for a long time anyway."

"I'm still sorry." She set her heavy case aside and put both hands on the gun to steady her abruptly shaky aim.

Indigo crossed her beaten-up arms over her chest in prayer. "I just wish I could tell my family I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Silence took over as Coco's brain advised her there was something on her shoulder, which she identified an instant later as a hand. Assuming it was Ciel, she said "I thought you were gonna watch my-" Those words morphed into grunts of pain when the hand spun her roughly around. "What the fuck?!"

Opher's angry fist, which he launched right into her face, contacted with a metallic clank so loud it echoed. His strike left Coco in an awkward, limp pile on the ground between himself and a startled Indigo. Her shattered sunglasses dropped onto the grass. Only now did Ciel, whose back was to them, realize the problem. "Hands up!" she ordered loudly, aiming her rifle at him as she scuttled closer. "Now!" A bolt of pinkish lightning jumped from the tips of his fingers and knocked her to the ground. Her body jerked uncontrollably with the assault – as did her Aura, which directed iron around rapidly under her skin, defending against what it thought was physical blows registered by her overloaded nervous system. Her rifle went flying as her limbs twitched viciously.

Those two issues dealt with for the moment, Opher nonchalantly kicked Coco's unconscious body aside and knelt before a terrified, slack-jawed Indigo. "Is this what going on an actual date with you would be like?" he quipped, grinning like a madman. She tackled him in a hug so forceful that even he had to grunt with the contact. "It's okay. I'm fine. You, on the other hand, don't look so good."

"Shut up for a minute," she said, patting him down in search of injuries. "How did you get out? How did _I_ get out? What about the pilot?" When she drew back her hands and examined them in the flickering light of the fire, she found nothing. No sweat, no blood – her digits were completely dry. In fact, his red, long-sleeved shirt and tan cargo pants were also flawlessly intact. "You're—you aren't even scratched. I don't understand." With some effort, she rose to her numb feet and looked into the forest as more howling echoed through the trees – her confusion would have to take a back seat. She needed to get them out of there before the Grimm arrived. "You shouldn't have knocked them out, we're gonna need their help to make it back to Beacon." Then it hit her. "Wait. Did you—did you throw lightning from your fingers? Is that your Semblance? No, wait, you shot fire out of too… what the _fuck_ is going on?"

"One thing at a time, Indigo." He helped her to her feet and away from the wrecked airship. "I couldn't do anything for the pilot. As for us, well..." It would have to wait; as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could see Grimm at the treeline, approaching at a curious pace as they searched the area for the source of the misery their senses detected. He instantly put himself between them and her. "They're here."

Instead of staying put, however, she limped quickly over to Coco's discarded pistol and snatched it off the grass, determined to help fight the beasts. She stood side by side with him as one of the Beowolves made eye contact and roared. "Got anymore tricks up your sleeve?" she asked nervously. More monsters appeared, mostly Ursae, but a Death Stalker joined their number – which was their cue to charge. "No!" she snapped, raising the pistol and opening fire. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Opher sweep his right arm around and up; the Grimm were flung skyward like rockets, howling their rage with limbs flailing uselessly. A speechless Indigo allowed the muzzle of the pistol to drift down again while she watched them fly. A few seconds later, the horde came plummeting back down to Remnant, splattering in the tree branches or on the ground around them. Only the Death Stalker survived this trip – albeit with most of its legs shattered – but another twitch of Opher's wrist planted a spike of ice between its many eyes, removing it as a threat. While she startled reflexively with the noise each time a Grimm met its end via gravity, her eyes went up to him and never left. He wouldn't look at her. Neither could find words to break the silence.

Coco, who had returned to consciousness just in time to see the monsters fly, did it for them. "What… what happened?" she gasped, left hand over her throbbing nose. She scrambled into a seated position, then to her feet as soon as her dizzy brain allowed it. Her blurry vision landed on Ciel's limp form a few meters away. "Ciel!"

"Don't throw a fit. She's fine, I just had to knock her down for a minute to avoid anything stupid happening." Opher watched as Indigo handed Coco back her pistol. "Why were you about to shoot her?"

"The protocol." Shaky fingers ran through her messy hair – at some point she'd lost the clip tying it all together in its usual neat ponytail – and she sighed. "She might have to shoot me anyway, I don't know if I can get back to Vale." A hopeless smile went to her employee before she turned away, eyes bulged with fear for what might happen to Schwarze when this news got back to the city. "Oh no..." she whispered.

The smile he returned once she looked back up at him was much more reassuring. "It's been a while since I walked a girl home, but I don't think I'm that rusty." He placed his right hand into his pocket and stared at the unhappy student. "By the way, point that thing at her again and I'll have your head on a fucking pike."

So Coco aimed it at him instead as she stumbled unsteadily toward them. "Don't threaten me," she warned, drawing so close that the muzzle of her gun rested against his forehead. "You're already in trouble for interfering in a combat trial _and_ for assaulting students. I wouldn't dig that hole any deeper."

"Okay, okay," Indigo said with a nervous chuckle, sliding herself between the two much taller opponents, "Let's not do this. The Grimm are gonna-"

Unmoved as the trees around him, Opher roughly snatched the pistol right out of Coco's hand and handed it to his boss. "I think I'd rather you carry this thing for now," he stated plainly, turning his back on both women.

"Holy hell, man!" she blurted out with surprise, fumbling with the weapon for a few seconds as he walked off without another word.

"You son of a bitch!" Coco snapped, grabbing her pistol right back and storming along after Opher as he moved toward Ciel. More growling from unseen Grimm leaked through the darkness.

She caught up to him just as he reached the assault rifle Ciel had lost, which he picked up, but upon straightening he found a pistol muzzle jammed into the back of his skull. Indigo darted over, wincing with the pain in her legs, desperate to defuse the situation before the monsters came again; it was too late, however, as Grimm homed in on Coco's anger and slashed out of the trees – Beowolves, Ursae, and speedy little Creeps flowed like water into the clearing. Before either woman could scream their horror or recoil from the horde, he lifted his left hand and snapped. A concentric ring of blue fire spread out from his feet along the grass – it left the blades untouched, as well as Ciel when it passed over her – before erupting into a wall of magical heat that obscured everything in sight save for a circular slice of the sky and the half-shattered Moon. Every beast that passed through it found themselves being annihilated into vapor a second or two later, tumbling across the ground as they ran and flying apart while their bodies disintegrated into nothing. The tremendous befuddlement he found on their faces after checking on Ciel forced him to laugh. "Well, so much for managing expectations. I didn't even make it three months," he murmured caustically.

"Wh-wh-wh-" was all Indigo could utter in reply. At a complete loss, she shuffled over to help him sit Ciel up as the girl squirmed where she lay en route to full consciousness.

"Where am I?" she wheezed, limbs stony with the residual effects of Opher's lightning strike. Seeing him caused her to jolt away violently, though standing up wasn't possible with her legs so unsteady and she ended up on hands and knees instead. The blue fire surrounding them all stole her attention. "Th… the forest! Coco! It's on fire!" But the longer she looked at it, the easier it became for her to notice one fact: that wall of flames wasn't moving. "We have to—leave?" she said, initial gasps of horror blending down into confusion by the end.

"I'm gonna guess you two weren't out here by yourself?" he asked Coco, giving Indigo Ciel's rifle for the moment; the gobsmacked woman had no idea what to do with it – despite her considerable training with such weapons – and stared as if looking at an artifact from a different planet. While he waited for an answer, another screeching Death Stalker melted against his magic as wax would yield to a candle flame. "You did mention the trial, after all."

"I-" Language evaded her for a moment, thanks mostly to the display and the pain caused by her Aura as it tried to stabilize and heal her likely-broken nose. The muzzle of her pistol went down again – as did the injured arm with which she held it, hanging limply at her side. "I _was_ with Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos' teams." Here she paused to to help Ciel to her feet.

"We joined up with them a little while ago," Ciel added, her inflection more appropriate for a question as she looked around at the wall of blue fire. "Would someone mind explaining to me what's going on?"

"Yeah," Indigo agreed, staring holes in Opher – but, again, he refused to meet her eyes. "That's a great fucking idea, man, would you please tell us how you did _any_ of this shit?"

"There's this stuff called Dust? Not sure if you've heard of it," he said dryly, running a hand over his hair and frowning. "Where the hell did my hat go..." Continued gazing finally got his attention. "One thing at a time," he advised before his eyes went to Coco. "I guess we'd better find your kids before they get themselves into trouble." Another snap of his fingers deactivated the wall of fire from the base up, a process which took five or so seconds. No other Grimm arrived even after its departure; the air was filled up instead by the sounds of nocturnal birds, the insects they were hunting – and gunfire from the direction of the ice fortification Coco and Ciel had left behind. Everyone snapped their eyes toward it.

"Shit, that's where they are," Coco said, grabbing her gun case off of the ground, then sprinting unevenly toward the noise. "Come on!"

They went as a group, at varying speeds – Indigo was the slowest due to the nagging pain in her legs, so she handed Ciel back her rifle and brought up the rear of their procession. Opher hung back with her instead of trying to charge forth with Ciel and Coco, which put him in a better position to light up any Grimm that came out of the woods to harass them. Twitches of his wrists ejected lances of fire at a few persistent young Creeps that were tailing them from the crash site of the airship. Most of these shots – which exploded on contact thanks to their wind-induced volatility – were blind attacks he flung over his shoulders; distortions caused by the presence of the beasts in his vast Aura field were how he aimed them. She watched this display with gobsmacked silence.

"Okay," he finally admitted during a lull, "I may have been underselling myself a little bit." Another burst of flames went flying over his shoulder.

"No fucking shit?" was her quick reply. She rubbed the nape of her neck, still locked in a struggle with her own breathing. "I'm… sorry about all this. If I'd had my own rifle..."

"Shush. If you think I'm mad at you about anything, you must have bumped your head harder than I thought." They could see the icy fortress ahead now – and the sizable number of Creeps trying to scale its walls, claws shrieking against the ice as they scrambled for grip. Gunfire, echoed from behind that ice, indicated that some of the beasts were already inside. The two girls opened fire – Coco even threw her case at one monster which was too close to the top, knocking it off – and Opher joined their attack once he arrived. Rocky shards flew from his hands, shattering young monsters which lacked white back armor, or stunning older examples so they fell off and were easy prey for Ciel and Coco's bullets. "Should I break through this or throw you over it?" he asked once they all came back together at the base of the ice.

"Punch through it!" Coco replied while snatching her case off the ground, arriving at the wall just before Opher unleashed a column of fire from both palms, melting through the ice until a large enough passage was formed to grant them entry. She entered first, with Ciel at her back.

They found the teams closed in around Blake, Weiss and Jaune, forming a perimeter at the center of their fort while Creeps attacked from all sides. The two girls were busy helping with their own defense as best they could – Weiss launched primed crystals along her blade at the enemy, while Blake filled gaps in their line with shadowy clones mined with ready-to-pop crystals of her own. The Faunus also threw dormant stones to detonate later if necessary. All sorts of ordnance flew through the night air around them; explosions and outbursts of elemental power lit up and rocked the area as they walked closer. Due to her lack of mobility, Weiss occupied the very center of their formation with Jaune next to her, whose injuries also rendered him unable to move, though he chucked and remotely detonated Dust as fast as he could throw it. Penny twirled through them at breakneck speed, her sword array whistling like songbirds and casting a gleam whenever it caught enough light from the Moon – or emitting sparks of its own whenever it struck Grimm armor. Ruby, with Crescent Rose in its more compact rifle mode, fired from the hip to keep the beasts away from a retreating Nora and Ren, while Pyrrha, next to her, did much the same with her own weapon. Yang stood back-to-back with her sister, fists up, to provide close support so Ruby could keep her gun firing. Her gauntlets belched pellets and fire at any Creep which dared to approach.

"We're gonna run out of ammo at this rate!" Ruby yelled.

"Hold on!" Pyrrha replied, twisting her gun back into its shortsword form as the combat range began to shrink. "We just need to wait for Coco to get back!" This fraction of a lull allowed her Aura perception's shrieked message to be registered at last. "Gods… he's here..."

"Who's here?" Ruby glanced back and saw only Coco and Ciel at first, but Opher came into view a second later. "Oh!"

Keen to end the chaos before any of the Grimm noticed Indigo, he discharged a burst of wind Dust and shot into the air, cocking back his right fist at the apex of the leap, then streaking downward with another wind assist. He drove that fist into the ground on impact and injected ice Dust into the soil, which burst out as frozen lances that impaled and lifted every Grimm in sight off the ground. The students continued to move and fight for a second or two afterward until they noticed the threat had ceased; Penny stopped first and eyed the ice structures curiously, tapping her finger against the nearest example. Ren was the most startled of the other nine – since this was his first encounter with Opher's particular fighting style, he stood close to Nora with eyes wide as he looked around.

Coco, still embroiled in the process of unfurling her gun, only saw the ice after looking up to determine why the din of battle had ceased. "Did you...?" she asked Opher when he walked by.

"Take a guess," was all he said, too busy examining the bruised and injured students ahead of him. He noted Penny with a curious glance – as well as her relatively pristine condition – but said nothing until everyone gathered in the center of the icy forest he'd just planted. "Hey, you're all still alive. That's good."

"Please teach me how to punch shit like that," were the first words out of Yang's mouth. Her eyes went to Indigo when she came up to stand with Opher. "Wait, why are you out here?"

"Gun friend!" Ruby chirped, bouncing on her feet. "And, yeah? Good question."

Pyrrha displayed as much politeness as she could shove through her pain and stepped over to them with a smile. "I thought you had some sort of meeting on campus?"

"Yeah, uh, well..." Indigo rubbed her arms, hissed with the sting that caused, and snickered weakly. "My stupid ass volunteered to hop on an airship and snipe the Nevermores over campus. He came with me." She thumbed over at her employee with a weird smile. "Thank the gods he did, otherwise I'd be dead. Someone accidentally shot us down with a rocket."

"That was _you_ we saw crash!" Weiss exclaimed. "Is everyone all right?" She got a half-shrug in response from Indigo, but Opher failed to acknowledge the question – he was busy staring in the direction of the distant magnetite ruins, although he didn't know that was why his brain was so interested in looking that way.

"Rocket?" Coco's eyes widened with surprise. "Argent? Uh..." She clammed up and looked away, pretending to fuss with her still-aching nose. "Hrm."

Opher, gathering some of his remaining earth Dust reserves to close the gap he'd made in their little fort, fully turned his back on the students and did just that with a few graceful sweeps of his arms. Once it was sealed, he finally turned to face the twelve pairs of eyes now on him. Penny, of course, waved happily when they made eye contact, which drew a snort from his lips. "I know you guys are pretty beaten up, but..." He then looked toward what he assumed was the southwest – where Beacon would be – and frowned. "I can't stay here. I need to get Indigo home."

"You _need_ to explain what the fuck is going on," she countered, arms folded with most of her weight cocked onto the least achy hip.

"Preach, sister," Yang agreed quietly behind her with a roll of her lilac eyes.

"This really isn't the time." He waved her off and looked at the kids instead. "How was the fight going?"

"Actually?" Ruby chirped, face screwed up, her eyes toward the sky. "It looked worse than it was! Penny's awesome. And the, um, the trick you showed us _seriously_ helped. Thanks." She squeaked when Indigo's stare landed on her too. "Look, I don't wanna get in the middle of this right now, you guys work it out. Okay? Please? It's awkward enough trying to deal with Weiss..."

"Excuse me?!" she snapped in reply – her anger mostly facetious, as evidenced by the smirk that appeared just after.

"Showed them what… gods, fuck it." Indigo, rubbing her eyes, relented with a sigh. "I don't even care. I just want to get the hell out of here." She grabbed Opher by his sleeve to get his attention. "Can someone check his Aura? If we're gonna walk back, I don't want him to run out halfway, especially when I don't have any weapons on me."

"Oh, I can!" Pyrrha – cognizant of Opher's preference to keep things quiet – walked over to him to mask the size of his field and pretended to examine it once she got close enough. The redhead even produced her Scroll to enhance the ruse, making faces at its screen as the measurement app once more threw up an error in the face of his too-powerful Aura. She hid this from Indigo with a carefully placed hand. "Seems fine to me."

"Really? After all the shit he's done?" Overwhelmed, she decided this additional confusion could go on the pile to be dealt with later; her biggest concern was her ability to get back into Vale. "Okay, I guess… fuck me. What a day." Sleeve-grabbing became a pull of Opher's left hand. "You run point, I'll do navigation?"

He shrugged at this with a smile. "If you insist." He looked back down at Ruby. "I'll fix the new hole if you guys wanna stay."

"We can do it. The teachers should be out here soon anyway." Ruby waved at her team as Opher and Indigo took their leave. "Okay! Let's get ready to really dig in! How are we doing on crystal reserves? We're gonna need more ice before our wall melts!"

"Still got half a backpack," Blake said, pointing at it as it sat by her foot on the ground. "I'll go pick up the ones I didn't set off and get a more accurate number." She looked up at Coco, who now stood next to her. "Um, what happened to your nose, by the way?" More inspection caused her brow to raise. "And your sunglasses?"

Coco, glaring at Opher's back, rubbed the half-dried blood from her face with a gloved hand. "It's not important."

* * *

Once they'd put some distance between themselves and the students, Indigo and Opher found a marked lack of Grimm thanks to the former's grasp on her emotions, plus the latter's utter lack of worry about their current plight. As promised, she had her Scroll out – it was in pristine condition, especially considering all it and she had just been through – to help point the way. "Straight ahead," she said quietly, eyes darting around in response to almost every sound and movement they could detect in the darkened woods. "Four clicks. There's a stream, too. Not sure how deep."

Opher was the one providing light, thanks to a yellow flame he held in his right palm. "I'll get us across." Silence caused him to glance back; he found a blank look on her face which became a weird smile when their eyes met. "Soooo… about all of this. I may not have been entirely truthful about my employment history." An awkward moment passed. "Dust surveyor was not my first line of work. Before that, I was a soldier too. Not for very long, but..."

Those four words brought Indigo to a nearly-instant halt; she stopped so fast that he didn't realize it at first and had to walk back to her once he did, confusion spread across his features. "I knew it," she breathed to herself. "In which Army?" were her next words, louder this time. "Atlas?"

Here, at last, was a new challenge: how to fit the existence of Kingdoms into his boundless ability to make shit up, since the last time this process unfolded was a few centuries before the idea of huge cities came to fruition. Opher, hand on hip, stared into the woods for a moment before urging them ahead with a wave of his other hand. For now, he'd just wing it. "Yeah. Guess what I did?"

Her eyes lit up with curiosity. "I'm all ears."

"Infantry." Now Opher came to a halt. "Something ahead." He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled. "Who goes there?" Two flashlights lit up in response and bounced with the quick steps of their bearers. "Must be people, 'cause I'm pretty sure Grimm don't know how to use those."

"Gods, I hope not." They stood side by side and awaited whoever it was; thirty seconds later, silhouettes appeared, weaving around the trees, their lights slashing through the night until they landed on Indigo and her employee and stayed there. "Easy!" she complained, shielding her eyes. "We can't see anything!"

"My apologies—wait a moment, am I hearing things?" Glynda Goodwitch's voice. She came into proper view a moment later, striding forth to investigate. Surprised would be an understatement for the look she wore upon seeing Indigo. "Miss Stahl? You _survived_?" Opher, on the other hand, received a somewhat more uncertain gaze. "Mister… Riese, wasn't it? What are you doing out here? There's a field trial going on, the forest is strictly off-limits right now."

He replied first with a wry smirk. "I got on the airship too. She needed something to rest the rifle on to aim properly. That turned out to be me." Glances were thrown toward the other shadow as it materialized into Qrow a few seconds later.

"Well, well. How the hell did either of you make it through all of that?" he asked, balancing the spine of a thick, silvery broadsword on his left shoulder. Indigo's various cuts and her ruined skirt were to be expected, but Opher's pristine status made his brow crinkle. "And without a scratch in your case. Lucky."

Indigo nudged Opher in the ribs before crossing her arms. "I wouldn't know, I got knocked out and Opher won't tell me what happened after that. All I know is the pilot didn't make it."

"The particulars can wait until we get back home," he said, rubbing at his hair and desperately wishing he knew what happened to his precious boonie hat. Abrupt, silent awkwardness from the teachers caused him to look over. "Got awful quiet over there."

"About your re-entry..." Glynda pushed her glasses back up her nose and stepped forward to take charge of the exchange. "Vale's Interior Ministry protocol may prevent that from happening, I'm afraid, for either of you. Due to Grimm exposure. We might need to keep you at Beacon for a while."

"And how long is a while?" Opher asked, arms folded loosely. Indigo, sensing his tension, tugged at his shirt, but he paid her no mind.

Her reply was almost studious, though she avoided eye contact the whole way through it. "Until we determine that your emotional state is sound and your exposure levels are within safe limits. Unfortunately, that may take some time."

While her vagueness irritated him, it was Indigo's muttered, "Oh, fuck, they're never going to let us back in," laced with knowing resignation, that pushed him over the edge. Opher pinned the taller blonde down with a virulent glare but said nothing just yet; instead, he gently took Indigo's hand and led her past the two teachers on deliberate steps.

"I'm sorry," the tall blonde said as they walked by, "but I must ask you to remain on campus for now." A failure to reply from both parties furrowed her brow hard; she stared at their backs as they retreated into the night. "Did you hear me?"

"Eh, it's not like they've got a choice either way, the airspace is still closed to traffic and I'm pretty sure we don't have any other shuttles." Figuring the conversation had reached its end, Qrow shrugged, turned away, and started off toward the distant sounds of battle to the northeast. Glynda, however, failed to come with him. "What's the problem?" he asked after coming to a halt again.

"I would like _some_ sort of acknowledgment," she muttered under her breath before pursuing. "Miss Stahl? Mister Riese? Did you understand me?"

Nothing the growing anger on his face, Indigo stretched up as high as she could to whisper to Opher, "Don't, man, the Grimm are going to come. Just let it go."

His reply was a statement she'd never heard anyone in her life say before. "I don't give a shit about the Grimm." He then released her hand, placed his on her shoulder, and stopped her gently from walking any further. "Sit tight for a minute."

"Wh-what are you-?" she blurted out as he turned and went back toward the unhappy Glynda. "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! Opher! No! Calm down!" she added while skittering around in front of him and placing herself between two opposing parties for what felt like the tenth time tonight. When that failed to stop either from striding toward each other, she grabbed him by the sleeve and walked with him instead, trying to mutter sense into his ear. "No, no, no, no, dude, no, stop, you're already on the cops' radar, you can't do this. You can't. You can still get back in, just be reasonable, okay?"

Opher and Glynda came together under a sprawling, ancient, broad-leafed tree to engage in the most uncomfortable staring contest the shorter woman had ever witnessed. While she had slightly more height than he did, they were perfectly matched for intimidation factor. Even Qrow felt the need to be peacemaker; he walked over and stood next to a shaken – and shaking – Indigo. "All right, everybody relax," he said gently. "We've got these rules for a reason. It's nothing personal."

His dull green eyes remained locked on the Assistant Headmaster. "We're going back to Beacon. Then we're going home. Considering that we just risked our lives to help you and got shot down by someone _on your fucking campus_ for the effort, you'll all be lucky if we decide to call it even once we're back in Vale. And if you have a problem with that, I could not possibly give less of a shit. Goodbye." He turned on his heel to leave, but felt some force tugging at his body which stayed the motion. He glanced down and found a riding crop in Glynda's right hand – as well as some kind of subtle purple glow that encompassed most of her tall frame.

"I will not be threatened, Mister Riese," she warned him evenly. "Either you remain on the campus when you arrive or you can consider yourself exiled right now."

"Holy shit," a terrified Indigo gasped through her fingers.

Twisting interactions between her Aura and his told Opher that it was Glynda's Semblance which currently nailed him to the ground. How angry he decided to be would depend on the answer to the question he asked next. "Are you talking just to me, or to both of us?"

"To you," was her icy reply. By now they were face-to-face with a frantic Indigo nearby, trying to decide whether to force herself between them to break up the staring contest, or to stand aside in hopes that it would help her chances of ever seeing Vale again. "I suggest you do as I asked so we can get this sorted out properly."

"Wow. 'Oh, I heard you were in an airship crash, how are you feeling?' is something you'd normally ask after hearing someone was _in an airship crash_ , but apparently that takes a back seat to enforcing this," he sneered. "I'm taking Indigo back to Vale. Bother us in the morning. I'm sure you've got somebody's Scroll number." With that, he concentrated his Aura forward until its charge became so dense that hers could no longer penetrate it and she lost her grip on his body. This action again excited the air molecules, but only enough to generate a shine too subtle to be noticed against the light from Qrow's Scroll. He then turned sharply on his heel and waved to Indigo. "Come on."

When Glynda tried to stop him again, she found herself unable to get a mental hold. "What-" she mumbled, face crinkled with effort. Not even directing her crop at his back to help her focus had any effect; he just kept on walking with a nervous Indigo alongside, glancing over her shoulder. "Why isn't this working?"

Noting the rather more intense purple light around her tall frame, Qrow shook his head and waved his hand in front of her face, breaking her concentration. "If it ain't working, then save your Aura and stop trying. We've got three hours of fighting out here to do, remember? Besides, they've got no choice. They either go back to campus or they die out here. We'll figure this out when we get back."

"You do have a point." Glynda ceased her mental assault – Opher was almost out of her range now anyway – and turned to the old Huntsman with a frown. "Very well, I'll call the campus and let them know to be on the lookout." When she produced her Scroll to do this, however, she found the device wouldn't stay on after she tapped the diamond-shaped power button. "Oh, of course it doesn't work."

"Yeah, mine's messed up too," Qrow confirmed, gazing with lidded eyes at his own. "Does this mean we need to head back ourselves?"

Glynda stared into the forest, her face stony, for a few seconds. "No," she finally replied, "the students take priority. We'll follow the noises for now." She set off through the undergrowth with Qrow in close pursuit.

* * *

So rattled was Indigo that Opher had to provide light for their walk through the woods; she was too busy trying fruitlessly to regulate her breaths while wringing her hands and planning her next move. "I should call Schwarze and let her know what's going on," leaked from between her trembling lips. "You really shouldn't have challenged Goodwitch back there. She could have kicked your-"

Could she? After all she'd witnessed, Indigo was no longer sure who would win a fight between her courier and Beacon's Assistant Headmaster – a fact which left her so baffled that it managed to ease her nerves, at least for a moment. Noting her silence, Opher glanced over and said, "Hold off calling her until we get back. No point in getting her worried for nothing."

"For nothing? We can't fucking go anywhere! Didn't you hear that other guy? The airspace is closed." The smile on his face set her off. Fists clenched, she snapped angrily at him, "What are you smirking about, you asshole?! This is serious!"

His definition of serious and hers were separated by more than a few centuries of experience, but, in deference to her agitation, he toned down the intensity of his grin. "I promised I'd walk you home, and I'm walking you home."

"We can't walk off Beacon Cliff, across the fucking lake, through the woods, and then 25 clicks across Carnforth Plain, you fucking moron!" Her breaths were gasped after this outburst, but once more he walked unfazed. "Look, I know you saved us from the crash, and killed all the Grimm, and..." The more she recalled the events of the past hour, the faster her angry momentum began to fail; that emotion was set aside for awkward curiosity. "And apparently you can jump really high. You've been holding back a lot on me, haven't you?"

At last, he reacted – with a shrug, as he pushed aside the thick branches of a leafy shrub so they could keep following the stream to their left. "Like I said, I've been trying to leave my old life behind."

Something she understood, to be sure, but the display left her interest piqued. "What rank were you? Back in the day, I mean." Her body tensed with ruefulness. "If you don't want to say, that's fine. I'm just curious."

It wasn't reluctance that stayed his tongue at first, but a long think about how he could possibly translate the title of his old commission into the modern language used by Remnant. Realizing the bigger problem at hand – his professed age – he discarded those thoughts and worked instead on reinforcing his cover story. "I barely made it out of basic. I wasn't in long enough before I… well." He looked down when she took his hand again.

"You washed out?" she asked gently. "I mean, I don't see how you _could_ have, given all the shit I just watched you do. Pretty sure Vale's Army would make you an officer right now."

"No, it wasn't like that." His mind traveled back across gulfs and chasms of time, landing on the war before, whose replayed atrocities put a bitter tightness in his features. "I was asked to do things I refused to do."

Indigo released his hand and turned away slightly, hugging herself in the process. Regret stained her eyes. "I wish I had your spine," she whispered sadly to herself. To prevent her angst from taking root and attracting the beasts, she quickly put her focus back on their plight. "Please explain to me how we got out of the airship. Please? I need to understand."

How could he deny her when she sounded so tired? Opher's face softened. Only the truth would do. "We were going to fall into Beacon Lake until I took control of the airship. I asked the pilot to guide us out toward the forest so we wouldn't crash into campus. It was the closest option I could think of. She… the rocket explosion caught her pretty bad, so she died on the way there. I jumped out with you just before impact."

She processed this in silence for a while, determining what questions she wanted to ask first. It seemed easiest to start at the beginning, so she did, hands clasped behind her back. "What do you mean you took control of the airship? Did you fly it?"

"I used gravity Dust to keep it from crashing, then some of the fire you saw to provide thrust. The pilot flew it for as long as she could," he explained, eyes suddenly locked forward again.

"Is that how you threw the Grimm?" He nodded at her. "I don't get how you use Dust, then. And what was that blue fire? I've never seen _anything_ like that in my life." The appearance of Beacon's campus through the trees, across the now multiple little creeks that cut wild, twisting paths through the forest toward their demise over the edge of Beacon Cliff, caught her eye and his too. They spent a few seconds looking at the CCT tower before she added an expectant, "Well?"

He emitted a sigh before motioning downstream and walking on. "Let's head toward the cliff. I don't want one of Glynda's underlings to catch us on campus. It's trouble neither of us probably feel like dealing with right now." After they emerged from the woods, they came upon the same side of the small stream network – and the same spot on Beacon Cliff – where Nebula had met her end weeks before. Flowing water drowned out everything but the closest chirping insects, including the distant sounds of the combat trial which raged on in the Emerald Forest. Upon arrival at the cliff's edge, they looked down into the shining lake until Indigo's attention landed on the sparkling city of Vale beyond and she emitted a sniffle. His hand came to rest on her head; this time, she didn't fight the contact. "I know a different way."

She shook off his hand and looked up. "A different way to what?"

"To use Dust." From the left leg pocket of his cargo pants, he pulled out a purple gravity Dust crystal, a long, faceted shape no bigger than his palm, and watched it sparkle in the moonlight as he moved it around in his hand. Indigo looked quizzically at it along with him. "This isn't just a rock that explodes if you point your Aura at it in a certain way." The crystal rose from his palm into the air, slowly, gently. "It's a gift."

"How the fuck..." she mumbled, poking it with her finger. It resisted her interference and continued to float happily.

 _I am going to regret this_ , he told himself silently, but if he was willing to share this information with eight stupid kids in a Huntsman Academy, then one of his two current actual friends deserved to hear it too. Opher chose to deliver it with a practical demonstration – flying them both home – so he waved at Vale in the pitch-black distance. "Are you afraid of heights?"

She stared at the city, blank-faced, her mind whirling as she tried to figure out why he asked. "I don't think so?" was the best she could come up with. She jumped when her perceived weight began to decrease – a few seconds later, she found herself floating just like the crystal in Opher's palm, perhaps a meter above the grassy ground, but well back from the edge of the cliff. "Wh-what the-?!"

His shoes also detached from the soil. "I'm going to fly us back to Vale." He took her by the hand, a reassuring smile on his face to counter the open-mouthed horror on hers. Subtly, to avoid startling her, he initiated a forward motion via wind Dust which was so slow, that she didn't realize they were over the lake until a few seconds had passed.

"Holy fuck!" she squealed, pulling herself along his arm like it was a horizontal rope until she came to rest with her chest pressed against his shoulders and her legs locked around his waist. "I can't do this! I can't do this! Put us down! Put us down! You're going to run out of Aura and we're going to die!"

Despite her powerful build and tremendous strength – the latter of which was also heightened by outright panic – her mighty grip caused Opher no pain at all, though it did make squirming his arms free a little difficult. He let her cling to him, since it probably made her feel _a little_ better, and flew on with the hyperventilating woman on his back. "Nothing is going to happen to you up here," he stated calmly. "If I didn't think I could make it, I wouldn't be risking your safety. You have my word." His face screwed up at the amount of exhaled breath going past his ear. "Well, I guess I know what your mouthwash sounds like?" he quipped, tilting his head away.

"How?!" she gasped, the only question her swamped mind could grasp as the lake and the forest drifted by over five hundred meters below them. "How the fuck?!"

"Breathe, Indigo. We're fine." He crushed the purple crystal in his palm and let its powder arc around them, borne on the magnetic prominence of his powerful Aura. It surrounded them like purple rings – although he masked the size of his Aura by concentrating these closely around them – until its activation. The result buoyed them like balloons on the wind. "I can use Dust way more efficiently than most people. This single crystal is going to get us to Vale, no problem." He adjusted his angle relative toward the ground when he felt her moving to get a better hold. Now her arms were wrapped around his chest. To keep her a little calmer, he began dumping invisible expulsions of wind Dust ahead of himself to mask how fast they were now going. He also threw out a question for her to think about. "When you used Dust in the Army, did they show you how to throw it like a grenade?"

"I mean, yeah," she admitted after a few more halting breaths. Her next act was the mistake of looking down past Opher's side at the sparse trees. Her grasp on him tightened again.

"Well, I _burn_ crystals." Noting how cool the air was getting as they subtly continued to gain height, he plucked a fire Dust crystal from another pants pocket and held it up to show her. "If I prime this, it just explodes, right?"

"Yeah, so don't do that," she agreed, staring at it as he held it between his fingers. When it began to glow, she lost every bit of her mind. " _You actual fucking moron_!" Yet as she watched, this stone, much like the crystal Ruby and Pyrrha had shown to Coco, burned quietly, fully controlled, like a little candle. Unlike that crystal, it fragmented into powder and arced along Indigo's Aura – which Opher found to be somewhat larger than he expected, though nowhere near as voluminous as his – and provided subtle warmth to counteract the brisk temperature at their lofty position.

When she couldn't put words to the sight or the sensation, Opher looked back over his shoulder and smiled. "I know. You have no idea what the hell just happened. I'll tell you the short version: there's a way to finely activate this stuff. It's like a prayer. You just ask for it."

"You… excuse me, did you just imply you talk to fucking rocks?"

"No, I don't. I speak with Remnant." He loosed a little grunt when she whacked him on the back of the head. "I'm doing the same damn thing right now to keep us airborne, so maybe just hear me out?" No further punches came, so he continued. "I'll prove it to you when we land, but anyone can do it. You only need to ask the right question and Remnant will answer."

"Gods help me, this day and everything in it is kicking my ass..." Indigo ducked her head as they passed into, then out of, a fat little cloud. "Are we gaining altitude?"

"Yeah, I wanna keep us above the airship lanes." More speed was applied to aid this effort; by now they found themselves over the vast plains upon which Vale sat. He softly gripped Indigo by both of her forearms – this was the most comfortable place to put his hands at the moment. She didn't rebuke him, so there they stayed. "Damn, you really are a brick," he commented upon feeling her muscles, mostly to lighten the mood. "My arms are like gelatin compared to yours."

She had to admit this was a total lie, at least so far as her current grasp on him could determine. "Shut up." Her face felt a little hotter for reasons not related to fire Dust. "But, uh, thanks."

"Mhm. By the way, how did the meeting go?"

"What?" She had to dig for that mundane information for several seconds. "I mean, I set us up for a lot of courier work since we don't have much storage space, but I don't think that shit matters now since we're-" It was that moment when the full implications of their current journey hit her. "Holy fuck, we're breaking into Vale! They're going to shoot us on sight!"

Her terrified squirming made controlled flight a little bit harder, so he tapped her gently on the forearm to get her to stay still. "Easy, we've got a long way to go and nobody is going to see us, not the way we're going in." Once she calmed down, he asked her something out of left field to get her mind off of her fear – after all, he could see dark shapes lingering in the air some distance away, and a fight with those, if they were Grimm, would attract far too much unwanted attention. "How did you even meet Schwarze? You two aren't anything alike."

"Why does it matter?" she snapped back, subconsciously realizing his aims but being much too frazzled to accept the distraction. A moment of thought, and some apologetic grumbling, later, she added, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He looked back at her over his right shoulder. "Indigo, I know how to fly. Try me."

"I—fuck off." A shake of her head moved some bluish hair from her eyes – no way in hell she'd release any part of her hold to do it manually – as she screwed up her gumption to answer. "We met in the Army."

" _Excuse me_?" he replied loudly, for once genuinely surprised. Safe navigation around a cargo airship took priority for a moment, after which he picked up the chat with a disbelieving, "Are you telling me she was a soldier too, or was it a civilian thing just related to the service?"

"Oh, no, she was a soldier too. We first saw each other in recruit training. Gods… feels like forever ago, but it's only been nine years." She couldn't help but watch the airship they'd just passed fly away, clueless about its unusual company in the sky. "She was just as bubbly then as she is now. Everyone liked her. She wouldn't stop pestering my ass until I liked her too, so we kinda ended up stuck together."

"Well, you two do make a cute couple." He busted out laughing when she smacked him on the chest with a hand. "Am I wrong?"

"We're friends! Close friends. Very close friends. _Very_ close." Indigo tracked another airship, which trundled by below them, before finally admitting the truth. "You're right. We did date for a while."

"That's the least shocking thing I've heard all night." He mentally checked his internal stores of gravity Dust and found nothing alarming, but chose to add a little more forward speed just to get them there in a reasonable amount of time anyway. "I'm picking up the pace, you might want to look away from our direction of travel. It may get windy." He blinked when he felt her put her face into the side of his neck. "Not exactly what I meant, but okay."

"Listen, this is the easiest place to put it!" she complained into his skin. "Anyway, yeah. We're both reservists, but I'm the only one still in ready reserve."

Most of his attention was now on managing their approach to Vale, which drew ever closer on the plains far below them. "I never would have guessed she had military experience. She's so… cheerful. I take it she wasn't a sniper like you?" A subtle change in her death grip around his torso caused him to frown. "Am I assuming wrong? You seemed to know how to handle that girl's rifle pretty well."

"No, I just—we started training as aircrew until my Semblance manifested. Turns out I can electromagnetically alter the path of objects in flight… including bullets. The Army thought being an airship pilot would be a waste of my talents, so I was moved to a different unit just a few months after I graduated from training. I probably could have flown the shuttle if I hadn't gotten knocked out. I was a pretty good cockpit jockey." Unbeknownst to him, the chat was now treading on extremely uncomfortable ground for her, but she held her courage and waited to answer whatever question he had next, grabbing him even tighter than before. To their right and somewhat behind them, a distant air battle raged – she could see tracer fire from military vessels against dark shapes that she could only assume were more Nevermores, but didn't know for sure. "Shit, there's a fight over there..."

"They'll never see us, we're fine." Opher only glanced at the fight before looking forward again. "When you transferred, I assume you parted ways with Schwarze for a while?"

Her face shifted just enough so she could lock her eyes on the broken Moon instead of the fighting. "She came with me. My new unit wanted her Semblance too. The rest of it is something I'd rather let her tell you, if she wants."

"That's the same thing she said about you. I guess all three of us are a little skittish about the good old days." Opher looked down and brought himself to a gentle stop; they hung directly above the city now, well out of sight of the searchlights on the wall – many of which were lit up and scouring the barren plains around the Kingdom in search of Grimm, or refugees, or some combination of the two. He'd flown them over the shop's district, mostly because he knew the neighborhood containing it and the inn wasn't so well lit. It'd be easier to drop in here than attempt direct insertion toward Indigo's fancy apartment block, whose residential surroundings gleamed like a star. To be fair, he wasn't sure he could place her safely on its curved roof anyway. Their descent began. "Just keep quiet, we'll be down in a second."

"Gods above who part the stars..." As Vale crept toward them, she found herself getting lost in the skyline, especially the sight of the huge palace whose golden dome dominated the Government District. "I've only ever seen this through an airship window before now. It's a lot prettier in, uh, _person_ , I guess?"

"Well, if you want another flight, just ask. Hey, I'll even give Schwarze a lift, although I'm not sure how well she'll be able to grab me from behind with that chest of hers." Another smack on the arm was his reward; he snickered lowly and concentrated on their descent for a few seconds. They alighted like dew on the roof of the inn next to the Atlesian's dormant pub, silent and unseen despite the modest crowd of people still out on the streets who were enjoying the first night of the weekend. He stood still until Indigo detached herself, watching carefully as she stood on her own two feet again. "All good?"

"I'm still hurting a little, but, uh, yeah." She lightly kicked her feet in turn before wiping at the sweat on her forehead and arms. "I might have left a sweaty me-print on your back, uh… yeah." Staring at her destroyed skirt caused a groan. "Man, I really liked this th—hey, wait! How come your clothes aren't all fucked up but mine are?"

"Well, when we bailed out, it was kind of into a tree, so..." He smiled a little as she placed her hands on her hips. "Look, it was either that or a fiery death. Also, I activated my Semblance so I could soak up whatever impact there might have been instead of you."

"And that covers your clothes too?" she asked, stretching some feeling back into her aching limbs as she walked slowly around him.

"It-" Opher paused – it had been so long since his Semblance resembled anything like the ones present-day people would be familiar with that he forgot its exact details for a moment. Once they arrived, which only happened after Indigo pinned him down with a suspicious look, he continued. "I can drain my own Aura and convert it into a field which makes me invulnerable for a few seconds. I tried to get as much of you in it as I could, but I was more worried about you hurting your head or chest. That's probably why everywhere else on you got scratched up. Sorry about your skirt."

"Oh. Well, you did save my life and bring me back to Vale, so I guess we can call it even." They shared wry smirks until Indigo's visage became rather more grateful. "Shit, man, you can make yourself invincible and you can fly. I feel like I'm in a comic book right now." A glance at her Scroll brought even more surprises: the time, much earlier than she thought it would be. "And you were hauling ass, gods help me, how did we get back so quick?"

He shrugged at her with a light smirk. "I may have been hiding our speed from you so you wouldn't flail and fall off."

She shook her head at this in disbelief. "Right. Thanks." Her next thought was too heavy for her to move her head and look toward him when she spoke it. "For… everything."

"Eh. I'd be a pretty terrible minion if I let you die." Arms stretched over his head, a grinning Opher chose to withhold any remarks about how adorable she looked when she got this awkward and instead replied with, "Well, let's get down from here so I can walk you back."

She waved him off and walked away to look down into the alley between the inn and the pub. "I can make it, man. You must be exhausted, anyway. It's fine." Her eyes went to him when he arrived to stand with her.

"I said I would," he replied simply. "And I am, so don't argue." Once more, he took her by the hand and issued another silent rebuke of the planet's gravity with his internal Dust stores before gently pulling her off the roof with him. They landed on their feet in the alley seconds later, so gently that Indigo didn't even have to bend her knees upon arrival. "There we go."

Amazement gave her something besides a nagging feeling of imminent doom in the morning – for both of them – to think on; at this latest exploit she smiled broadly. "Gods help me. Any chance I can learn how to do this? I can think of a bunch of ways it'd help around the shop already."

"I'm afraid a lot of what I can do isn't something I can really pass on," he admitted as they moved toward the sidewalk. "Long story. There are other things I can teach you, though." Once they reached the sidewalk, however, Indigo came to a stop behind him. "What?"

"I'm just thinking. If you're gonna go all the way to my district, you, uh, maybe wanna spend the night?" she asked, playing frantically with her loose hair. "I mean, you're about to move in anyway. May as well let us show you how the building works while you're there. Besides, you've _got_ to be tired by now. No point in making this trip twice, right? Ahaha..."

Opher snorted at her fidgety demeanor. While he had some pretty serious reservations – after all, it had been a long time since he'd really needed to fake being asleep with anyone else nearby – he also wanted to be near Indigo and Schwarze in case repercussions arrived in the morning. The latter concern won out. "Ah, why not. Let me go get my bag out of my room first so I can have a hat. I feel so naked."

Indigo nodded with a toothy smile. "Cool. When we get there, I'll show you how the elevator works. You'll love it. It's so fancy."

"The one in the lobby?" She nodded again. "That's probably a good idea, because I never would have gotten up to your floor if that other woman hadn't—you know what, never mind. I think I've made myself look pretty good tonight and I don't want to ruin that image," he said, walking with her to the door of the inn. Her giggles made him smirk. "Too late, huh."

She kept on snorting. "A little bit. I'll let Schwarze know we're on our way. And to get her stash of booze ready. I feel like we're going to need it."

* * *

Were it her style, Glynda would have allowed herself a smile at the amount of shock on her students' faces – but her professional nature wouldn't permit such an expression when danger was still present. She whacked aside another charging Beowolf with a sweep of her crop and the power of her angry mind. It went flying with a howl into the trees nearby, then landed with a solid crash. While a part of her reminded herself to be a little more judicious with her Aura, the rest wanted to be sure her students got back to Beacon by whatever means necessary, especially considering the amount of punishment they had already taken.

And, after all, this was the first time she'd been allowed to _help_ any of them. "Your idea to create a defensive emplacement wasn't a terrible one," she said once certain their latest opponent had expired, "although its location wasn't exactly your best option. You'll get better at such things with experience. I might also suggest curving the upper part of the walls out to prevent Grimm from crawling in so easily."

Ruby entertained other problems, hands on her head, whining, "Why is everyone so much stronger than meeeee..."

"Don't be too discouraged, Miss Rose," Glynda said as she smiled faintly down at her. "I might be relatively new to Beacon, but before my arrival I was a Huntress for many years. The longer you survive, the stronger you'll get. As for more immediate improvement, I suggest exercise and reflection. Mostly exercise at first, I think, just to make sure you have strong Aura reserves."

"We need to hit the gym this weekend," Blake mumbled to Weiss.

"You're telling me," she whispered back. "Assuming my leg actually still works." Hisses came out next as she tried to put weight on it. "Agh."

"As usual," Yang chimed in, showing off her mighty biceps, "I was _right_. Score one for these guns!"

"Oh, look at me, I'm Yang, I can bench-press a cargo airship with my thighs and all the boys love me, ha ha ha. I swear, one day, I'll start growing again, then we'll see who's-" Ruby blinked as one of her pockets began to ring – her Scroll's timer alarm, not its low Aura alert, which told her that six hours had now officially passed and the trial was over. "Hey! We're done!"

Yang examined her knuckles in the light of her own Scroll. "Huh. Wonder how Uncle Qrow is holding up."

"I don't hear an old man swearing in the distance, so maybe it's all good?" Ruby glanced over when Nora snickered at her assessment. "Between him and Penny and Ciel, I don't think we really need to worry."

Coco, after the exhalation of a long, low sigh, rested Gianduja's case on her right shoulder and looked up toward the Moon. "Velvet's going to kick my ass when I come back looking like this."

"So long as we come back in the first place, that's a win in my book." Pyrrha jumped in place a few times to chase out the stiffness in her powerful legs, then nodded at her team. "I think we all did very well!" Jaune received a particularly happy smile.

Nora, confident that her lanky teammate was no longer suffering from her accidental attack, once again reclaimed her usual cheer and twirled her hammer over her head. "So, how are we getting back? Do we just wait here for a ride or what? I don't hear any airships around."

"About that..." Glynda looked at her Scroll in search of answers and found little good news to pass on. "I'm afraid the military still has the airspace closed due to operations on the east end of the plains. We might have to walk."

"What? Fuck, that's like another hour of hoofing it from here," Yang complained with one hand on her hip. "We're almost out of supplies, too. If we get into a fight now-" A raised hand from the tall teacher cut her short.

"First, mind your tongue. One Coco Adel is enough." She smirked lightly when the girl in question stuck out her tongue. "Second, Professor Ozpin has dispatched some of Beacon's attached Hunters to cover our return trip." After a bit of calculation, Glynda pointed her riding crop in a seemingly-random direction and began to walk. "This way. Across Brantwell Creek and straight on. One of the Hunters will probably meet us in the middle."

"Neat." Ruby and the whole squad fell in behind her as they walked through the quiet forest. "Whew. I need a shower bad, I can smell myself over Yang."

Her sister instantly fired back. "That's funny, I can smell you over me too."

"Um..." a spent Blake interjected weakly. She shrank a little when her whole team, plus Coco, looked at her. "I'm just wondering when our next trial is?"

Glynda's eyes became hard with disgust, though none of them could see that gaze. She began to toe the Academy line. "Not for some time. We schedule a series in quick succession to give you an idea of what to expect once you've graduated and you're on your own. I know this method sometimes claims a high price, but… it is what it is." Having compressed her real lack of authority on the matter into those final five words, a solemn Glynda proceeded onward in silence.

Coco picked up some of her slack. "Now that you know what to work on, you've got time to work on it. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but things do get a little easier. A _little_ easier." Another thought made her grin. "Actually, once you guys show everyone else what you showed me, I think your whole class is gonna make it four years. Assuming nothing bad happened tonight, I mean."

That brought Glynda to an immediate stop; she turned on Coco and gazed so intensely that the sophomore thought she'd done something wrong. "Showed you what, Miss Adel?"

Coco tapped the camera on her shoulder, which still remained despite the amount of punishment she'd endured over the course of the evening – from Grimm and unhappy couriers alike. "You wanna see it now or wait and watch the whole thing?"

"What?" Pyrrha asked first. "You've been recording us?"

Glynda nodded at her. "At my request, yes. I wanted her to be able to catch the white flash if it happened again so we could have something more concrete to examine." Her eyes went to Coco again. "Show me now. I'm curious."

"All right." She looked around for some help. "Anyone got a red crystal?" The redhead handed her one from a pouch. "Thanks. Okay, now watch this shit." On a tripod of her thumb, middle, and index fingers, she held the small crystal, then closed her eyes to issue the silent invocation. Seconds later, as she expected, the little stone lit up and burned gently instead of exploding.

With a surprised, though hushed, gasp, Glynda walked over and watched the crystal give off little crackling flames – she even removed her glasses to stare at it in case the lenses were somehow feeding her eyes false information. "How?" she said at last, watching spent Ash float away in the humid breeze.

Coco dropped the stone once it became too dangerous to hold and crushed it out under her boot like a cigarette. "It's some kinda new priming state. You can do it at long range, too, I've been watching these guys do it all night. Hell, it's how they even made that ice ring in the first place."

She looked toward the younger students, all of whom waved or smiled awkwardly in some fashion except the unflappable Ren. "Who?" was the only word she uttered at first, followed by, "Who taught you this? I've never in my life… I had no idea such a thing was possible!"

"Wait, really?" Ruby scratched her head and blinked. She looked over at Yang, her silver eyes thoughtful, in search of advice. "Should we?"

"Worth a shot," she replied quietly. "We've got enough experience now. I think the whole class should hear it, don't you?"

Pyrrha nodded her agreement. "Perhaps this is a good way to bring him here on a more regular basis in the bargain?"

"Maybe..." Ruby's thin brows furrowed hard, though only briefly, before she cast her eyes up toward Glynda. "His name's Opher. He works for gun friend, I mean Miss Indigo, uh… Stahl? I think that's her last name. Their shop is called-"

"Diamond Dust..." Seized by queasiness, a wide-eyed Glynda turned away with a hand on her forehead. "And I almost..." But she hadn't. Surely they were waiting for her back on Beacon's campus, where the whole thing could be easily cleared up. Her calm returned. "Pardon me for a moment, please. I need to make a call."

She put a few meters of space between herself and her students, just far enough for privacy while still being in easy reach if the Grimm came looking for food. Once under the rustling protection of a large tree, she began a Scroll call – to the Headmaster himself. "Sir, this is Goodwitch."

"Ah, Glynda. Nothing untoward happening in your neck of the woods, I hope?" he replied, voice measured and professional as usual.

She donned her glasses again before inhaling a small breath. "No, sir. Might I ask a favor of you?"

"Of course."

"There were survivors from the crashed airship earlier and I sent them back. I would like to know if they made it. Would you please check the automatic scanner logs?" she asked, glancing back over her shoulder at the sound of muffled conversation between her charges.

"Someone survived that mess? Incredible. Just a moment, let's see what we've got." Silence. Long, awkward, and heavier the longer it lasted. Bad news followed. "The latest scans I see here are from the teachers leaving for the trial. What names am I looking for, exactly?"

"Indigo Stahl and Opher Riese." Subtle unease sent her to pacing slowly in front of the tree trunk.

More silence, until, a full minute later, "I see their entry for the meeting, then their departure to assist with containing the Nevermores – how did he end up going? I thought Miss Stahl volunteered to go by herself." Whatever emotions he felt about this revelation were masked perfectly by his easy tone.

"I'm not sure, sir," she replied fast, in order to urge the conversation along, "But nothing after that?"

"I'm afraid not. It's possible their IDs were damaged in the crash. I'll dispatch someone to look for them here."

"Thank you, sir. Call me if you hear anything." She hung up and returned to her gaggle.

Pyrrha immediately saw the unease in her eyes, ended her chat with the rest of her friends, and turned to face Glynda as she arrived. "Ma'am?" she said politely. "Is everything all right?"

She doffed her glasses again to rub at her eyes. "I ran into Miss Stahl and Mister Riese earlier on my way out here. I told them to wait for me back on campus, but… apparently they never made it back or the entry scan system didn't detect their arrival for some reason." The marked lack of concern on their faces struck her, but she kept it to herself. "I do hope they're all right."

"Guess we won't know until we get there." Yang, anxious to get Ruby back before something else stupid happened, was already walking away from the group in what she assumed was the general direction of Beacon. "Let's go-"

Subtle noise from ahead of her, somewhere beyond the thin trunks of taproot trees and out of her sight, shut her up. She came to a halt, dropped quickly into her ready stance, and raised her fists in preparation wordlessly; the rest of them followed her lead, including Glynda, who retrieved her crop and darted ahead to intercept the source of the sound before it could get to any of her students. "Be ready," she told them as the noise got louder.

"Sounds big," Weiss murmured, hardly able to maintain her fencer's pose with such pain shooting through her left leg. Sweat beaded on her pale forehead as she strained to hear more detail.

"I see something," Pyrrha muttered next, sword and shield in hand. What she spotted was merely a shadow, indistinct but large, and highly obscured by the multitude of trees between it and herself. Beside her, Jaune chose to use his Scroll light to try and add some clarity. "Careful, we don't know what this is."

"It's cool, you guys can beat it up when it comes after me," he said through a grin. He noted just after that his light was glinting off something metallic. "Hold on, is that armor?"

"Damn right it is," replied a gruff female voice, apparently belonging to the shadow. Seconds later, she emerged into view – Olivine Duprix, her monumental crimson blade on one shoulder and clad in her full armored battle dress. She grinned madly at their unease. "Didn't mean to spook you," she added, though her tone was less than convincing.

"Whoa," Nora said, in awe of the imposing frame this woman possessed; she wasn't much taller than Glynda, but dwarfed her physically regardless. "I thought _Pyrrha_ was built. You're a literal house!"

"Thanks, shorty." Her stainless steel eyes went to the teacher. "Head on back. I cut my way through here. Should be clear, but I don't know for how long."

"Very well," she replied, putting her crop away. "Did you happen to see anyone else en route?"

"Huh?" Olivine tossed her burnished green locks back over her shoulder and blinked. "Nah. Why?"

"Oh… it's nothing. I'll handle it later." Glynda nodded to the students. "All right, come along. I'm sure we're all tired."

"You ain't kiddin'," Coco affirmed as she snatched her case from the ground and set off.

They all filtered past the mountainous woman in loose order, mumbling among themselves about the trial finally being over, or other drivel Olivine couldn't be bothered to care about. Pyrrha received a much longer look than the others for reasons she couldn't place, but she said nothing.

One of the kids hesitated to leave at all: Ruby, who was fascinated by the warrior's giant blade and couldn't help but linger to examine it. "Wow, that's so cool," she praised nasally, admiring its bloody gleam in the cold moonlight. Its square, compound edge design also drew a joyful smile. "It looks like those big Vacuoan swords! Ahhhh, man, what do you call 'em..." While thinking, she made accidental eye contact with the giant. Her pure silver orbs and Olivine's faintly bronze-tinted ones locked on and stuck for a few seconds; the look on her face slowly froze Ruby's blood to ice despite it being blank. Perhaps it was a product of their considerable size difference, she decided, apologizing with a Pyrrha-like dip of her head. "My bad. Sometimes I get a little too excited when I see cool weapons. You know, like this!"

Muteness was her response, blank and cold and unmovable. Olivine stared at Summer Rose's daughter, focusing all of her mental strength on preventing herself from splitting the girl in twain right here and now. At last, she growled, "You're in my way," to get the annoyance to move.

"I'm-" Ruby looked down – she was indeed standing in front of Olivine by now – and gasped. "Sorry! Crap! My bad! Um… nice to meet you and your sword! Bye!" She ran off to catch up with her team just as Yang yelled to hurry her along. "I'm coming!"

Olivine tracked her departure, turning slightly to do so, watching her go over the edge of her enormous blade. Repressed hatred bloomed with a smile. "Spunky. I bet she's a screamer, too. Perfect."

Whether or not this was true would be found out in due time. For now, she continued to shove her way effortlessly through the undergrowth, headed toward the crash site of the airship which continued to belch smoke into the night air ahead. Tracking the acrid column through the thick canopy of the forest wasn't easy, but dealing with Grimm as they attempted to fall upon her proved even less of a challenge than the brambles and vines at her feet. They arrived piecemeal, one at a time, led by fast Creeps who charged at her recklessly – only to be crushed by her heavy iron boots like meaningless insects. An Ursa appeared, not a Major, but still a full-sized adult which towered over her as it came around a tree trunk, then got even taller when it noticed her and reared up on its hind legs, roaring angrily. Her crimson blade, launched by gravity magic, flashed right off her shoulder and buried itself in the beast's throat so fast it didn't even get a chance to return its front limbs to the ground before dying. She yanked it free by physical strength alone, then pressed onward, only to be confronted by the leader of this particular pack of beasts: an elder Death Stalker, so thickly decorated with white carapace spikes that it seemed to be more porcupine than eldritch scorpion. She rested her mighty blade point-forward on her shoulder as it attacked, skittering forth with claws and mouth open to feast on her flesh.

It tasted only the cold alloy of her weapon, which she again launched with magic right into its open maw. This sent it crashing to the ground, knocking down a few of the trees in the bargain, long before it got close to her. For good measure, she dashed forward and kicked her sword even farther into its mouth, then grabbed the handle with both hands and ripped it out vertically through the underside of its thick skin. Black viscera clung to it for a few seconds before the sublimation process began; soon her blade was as spotless as when it had started.

"Little bastards," she mumbled. A fire in the distance caught her eye. Seized by impatience, and noting the thin taproot trees between herself and her destination, Olivine held her blade horizontally out in front of her with both hands and charged through their trunks, snapping them like kindling as she made a beeline toward the flames. In short order, she reached the crashed airship, slid to a stop in the clearing nearby, and stooped slightly to catch her breath.

When she felt it, her sword went crashing to the ground. Though visually long gone, the color of his expression of the true art was still azure blue to the part of her soul that could detect it – and it was _everywhere_. Far more intense than Ruby's discharge of her holy power, its volcanic remains overwhelmed her senses and she dropped to one knee. The intensity alone wasn't enough to stagger her; it was the ancient memory of the Maiden locked within her heart, which spoke in words beyond her power to fully comprehend, that kept her grounded and motionless, eyes bulging with horror.


	16. Yesterday's Inferno

The cusp of dawn brought cooler air and clouds, dulling the dim light which entered Glynda's office to a muted gray defeated by the lamps on the shelves behind her. She was just finishing up a sleepless night spent in review of the trial and its costs. Thirty-seven of thirty-nine returned – a boy named Cardin Winchester and one of his teammates were the victims – which was a survival rate frankly much higher than she expected. Much of the past hour had been spent trying to figure out what to do with the remaining members of his team. "I'll just put them with some of the new arrivals on Mandag," she finally sighed, glasses on her desk and one hand over her green eyes. The influx of Haven students provided even more work for her to do, of course, but she lacked the gumption to sit here and try to tackle it while running on two hours of something which could barely be called sleep. A low groan slipped out from her mouth. The job never stopped, for anyone or anything.

Compounding matters was what she'd seen on Coco's unbelievable video footage. Disgusted with her paperwork, Glynda dropped her Scroll on the desktop and accessed the file to watch it again. The first half, featuring Ruby, Pyrrha, and their teams using the new, strange priming mechanism, was bad enough – she watched for the fifth time seemingly-dormant Dust explode at ranges of dozens of meters, far beyond the size of any Aura ever known, then ran back the video and watched again. "There's no way this is possible."

Glynda had already tested the concept herself, of course, with tears and fine Ash as a result, but she continued to struggle with its veracity regardless. None of it made sense against what she knew about the relationship between Aura and Dust. This wasn't the only problem with the video; she had seen Opher punch Coco's lights out when she was about to execute Indigo to end the attraction of her trauma for the Grimm. She'd watched monsters fly, blue fire consume other Grimm like matchsticks, and some of his ability to expel fire, to jump, to cause outbursts of ice so large that she wasn't sure she could regularly prime an equivalent amount of Dust to match it. If it _was_ Dust. No amount of examination of Coco's admittedly not-so-great recording could tell her where his supply was.

She'd ask him, but there was another issue on that front too. Were they even alive? Nobody had seen them on campus. The scanners were yet to register either one's ID, entering or leaving, since their departure on the doomed shuttle. With the passage of several hours since their last sighting, she decided to finally try the Scroll number Indigo had on file as her business line. It rang endlessly before going to voicemail – not a good sign, but she maintained her usual professional demeanor. "Miss Stahl, it's Glynda Goodwitch. I'm… calling to see where you ended up after last night. Please get in touch with me as soon as you can. It's important. Goodbye."

That was all she could do for now. As she placed her Scroll back into position to continue dissecting Coco's video, the two-way device which alerted her of people trying to get to her office via elevator went off, scaring her almost out of her desk chair. "Who is it?" she asked while catching her breath.

"It's just me, ma'am." The camera girl herself, sounding every bit as exhausted as Glynda. "Saw your lights on from below. Couldn't sleep. Figured you'd wanna talk about what I recorded anyway, soooooo..."

"Hm. I didn't think Velvet would let you get away so soon. The doors are unlocked." She tapped a green button which both ended the conversation and activated the elevator door mechanism for her office.

Twenty seconds and a pleasant chime later, a decidedly less fashionable-than-usual Coco strode through those doors. While her hair was styled and arranged as normal, she was clad in a pair of black cargo pants much baggier than her preferred type, with a red, spaghetti-strapped tank top above them. Her gray sneakers squeaked on the hard tile as she walked over. "I'd take coffee or liquor right now. Check that; coffee _with_ liquor," she joked while sitting down. The ragged scars on her exposed arms, including the new, redder set she'd earned the previous evening, shone a little more obviously in the yellowish light from Glynda's lamps.

"That makes two of us." The tall blonde glared at the frame of video she'd paused on, though nothing terribly interesting was contained therein. "I see the Grimm went after Schnee and Belladonna rather forcefully last night."

Bitter humor stained her chocolate eyes. "I wonder why."

Brow knitted, the blonde directed the conversation back onto a safer road. "Your assessment of their performance?"

"Oh, they're not bad. Even the – what's his name." She rolled her hand around a little, waving the memory back to her mind. "The Arc kid. He's not skilled at all, but he knows his limits. Didn't get in the way except that one time Nora hit him, which, I think, was mostly her fault." Based on the squint, more detail was wanted, so she added, "They work well together. All eight. I'd keep 'em as a unit. Hell, if they get outta here they're probably gonna work as one anyway."

"Noted." For what little that was worth. Glynda scrubbed ahead to a different part of the recording. "Explain this decision. I'm not angry with you, I just want to hear your perspective."

Coco leaned forward as the tall blonde called up a different projection screen with the same video file that she could more easily see. The frame it showed depicted her with her pistol against the back of Indigo's head as she knelt near the airship's flaming carcass. Instead of saying anything, she rewound it a few moments and let her past self do the talking. " _I'm not dragging around an unconscious woman for however long it takes the teachers to get out here – if they come at all. You saw the shit going on over the campus."_

"There you go," she concluded. "I wasn't gonna do it. You saw how beaten up we were already. The kids were my priority." The memory of what came next caused her to rub idly at her mostly-healed nose. "I really didn't want to, but, man, what other options did I have? Then… then it just didn't matter."

"That's about what I figured. Normally, I'd be quite angry at him for striking two of my students – and I am, don't misunderstand me. However, based on what I've seen of his fighting, he could have killed you both outright," she admitted while cleaning her glasses. "Add that to his intervention against the Grimm, plus what he seems to have taught the Rose and Nikos teams..." Finally, she made eye contact with Coco. "This new priming state could save dozens of students' lives at the _very_ least. I just wish I knew where they were. I've got quite a few questions."

"Wait, they never showed up last night?" she asked, playing with the long lock of hair that hung down near her right eye. "Unless he ran out of Aura, there's no way the Grimm got them. Maybe he did. What we saw him do must come with a pretty high price."

"Perhaps so," she sighed. Staring daggers at the blue fire on Coco's video occupied her for the next few seconds. "I still can't figure out what sort of Dust this is. Lava crystals explode orange. Fire is always red, orange, or yellow. Yet this fire is the same color I saw engulf two Nevermores over campus just before Stahl left for the shuttle. I wonder if he was responsible for that too." Her brow creased deeply. "Look how it dissolves them… almost like it triggers a forced sublimation of Grimm while they're still _alive_ , for lack of a better term. I've never seen anything even remotely similar."

"New kind of Dust? There's gotta be varieties we haven't discovered yet. Maybe that's the answer." In desperate search of comfort, she sat sideways in the chair with her long legs draped over one arm and slumped fully against the back. Her eyes closed. "Gods, I'm so tired."

"You're not the only one." Taps on the glass told both women that rain had arrived, though it was little more than drizzle. Glynda rose from her chair to stretch and walk some feeling back into her aching calves; she traced a long, lazy path to the windows which overlooked the side of the campus which faced the cliff. Barely visible through the fog was the still-glowing city of Vale, miles beyond. "Two more lost. Damn it all. I'd try to schedule another ceremony, but I'm not sure I can lean on the upperclassmen for protection again so soon. We wouldn't have Army support this time." Her face darkened. "And with the new students arriving, I fear our next trial might cost dozens of lives. Perhaps I should save my efforts until then."

"Yeah. Then again, maybe it won't be so bad with this remote priming thing up our sleeves." Coco's eyes snapped open when the tall blonde failed to respond. "We're gonna tell the rest of the students about this, aren't we?" she asked, looking over.

She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the chime of her elevator doors. Very few people would have the authority to just enter her office at will, and as they watched, one of those people stepped out, clacking his cane along the tile as he walked. "Pardon the interruption," Ozpin greeted politely. "But I could scarcely believe someone managed to beat me to work for once and I got curious." He smiled at Coco as she properly rearranged herself in the chair out of respect. The next thing he saw wasn't so amusing – the projection screens on Glynda's desk, whose images were still frozen on the blue fire. "Dissecting last night, are we?"

"Yes." She returned to her desk, sitting down about the same time Opzin took the free chair next to Coco. "I won't even say a word. Just watch this."

Ozpin did as asked, once Glynda scrubbed back through the footage to a few seconds before Coco and Ciel arrived at the crash site. The expression on his face remained thoughtful and stony even as he watched Indigo kneeling, seconds away from her end at the muzzle of a pistol. It didn't change when Opher punched Coco, nor when a bolt of lightning knocked out Ciel. The act of terrestrial Grimm going for an unscheduled flight failed to alter his visage, as did the generation of the blue fire which had his deputy so captivated. He said nothing, even after the final display of ice disgorged by Remnant's soil and Opher's fist which instantly dispatched the dozens of Creeps in the camera's view.

This silence left Glynda awkwardly staring across the desk at him. "Ah, sir?" she finally asked, head tilted.

"This is somewhat more combat capability than I would expect from a Dust courier," he noted, brows raised with partially-real surprise. "And I'm not sure I appreciate what he did to Miss Adel."

"Not sure? Gee, thanks," she replied mockingly. "Don't forget Ciel, too."

He cracked a tiny grin which lasted only an instant before a more serious expression arrived. "I'd quite like to have a chat with him..."

It was Glynda's frown that caused him to trail off. "They never came back here. I've left a message on Miss Stahl's Scroll number, but I've no idea where they are or if they're even—alive."

"Unfortunate." Some thoughtful chin stroking was in order. "And no further sightings of Miss Rose's flash of light, I presume?"

"Nope," a sleepy Coco confirmed. Her eyes snapped open again when she realized another problem. "What caused the crash in the first place, by the way?" she asked, scrambling upright in her chair. "I heard that Indigo woman say… but, I mean, I don't wanna assume anything."

Ozpin chose to deliver the bad news himself, quite gently relative to his usual tone. "Miss Wright admitted her mistake to us not long after it happened, I'm afraid."

The weight of his words bent the tall student forward in her chair until she was staring at her own shoes. "I knew I should have talked to her when I got back-" Her head jerked up. "Wait. Is she… is she still here?"

"We haven't come to a decision yet, so, yes." Glynda dismissed the screens above her desk and inhaled deeply. "Although she apparently did kill the pilot. It's something Professor Ozpin and I will discuss later."

"Right." A change of subject was in order to melt the icy knot in Coco's stomach. With Ozpin present, she decided to pressure Glynda again about spreading the knowledge they'd gained overnight. "When are you going to start teaching the rest of the students about the new Dust priming mechanism?"

He blinked at her with partially-genuine surprise. " _New_ priming mechanism? Goodness, I missed a lot."

"Sorry, sir, but I wanted to review the video overnight before I mentioned it this morning. And, to be fair, what I've seen is the kind of thing that demands a physical demonstration regardless." From one of her desk drawers she produced a red Dust crystal, then, with a flick of her hand – and some careful application of her Semblance, which cast a brief purple glow across the office – she skipped it along the floor until it came to rest on the other end of the room. "How far do you think it is from us to that crystal?"

"Uhh… fifteen meters?" Coco guessed after some silent calculation.

"I believe it's around eighteen and a half." Both women looked at Ozpin, who regarded them with a smile. "I was here when the structure was built, you know. I had to approve blueprints until my eyes crossed."

The blonde nodded at this and got back to her point. "At any rate, either number is much larger than the radii of our Auras. Now… watch this." Hands clasped, she closed her eyes to issue a silent plea. Sure enough, the crystal glowed, then emitted a gentle crackle as its contained flame leaked out. All three watched it burn until it had no more left to give and expired into a pile of powdery gray Ash. "Look at the remains. They're so fine. This isn't just a new trigger for Dust, it seems to alter how efficiently it burns as well."

Ozpin, despite being more than familiar with the concept and its results, did as Glynda wanted. He moved over to stand by the pile, even poking it with the tip of his cane to complete the illusion of curiosity. "How odd. This is the sort of Ash I would expect from powdered Dust, not a crystal."

"I know, right? Isn't it fucking weird?" A nettled gaze from Glynda only served to make Coco smirk. "Well, I'll let you guys do teacher stuff or whatever. I'm gonna go talk to Argent and get back to Velvet before she loses her-" Tones from her pocket cut her off – she didn't even need to look at her Scroll to know who it was. "Too late."

They watched her rise and shuffle tiredly toward the elevator. Ozpin even waved as she walked by him. "Do tell Velvet I said hello," he said with a smile. All he got was a wave in reply before she entered the elevator, after which he walked back toward the desk. "I would very much like to know how our new friend Mister Riese learned of this… whatever we're going to call it for now."

"The students refer to it as 'remote priming'," she explained, rubbing slowly at her aching head. "And I agree. I just wish I knew what happened to them. I'll keep calling for now."

"No, no, I'll take up the search. You should get some sleep while you can." When his advice went ignored, Ozpin pointed his cane at the elevator until Glynda finally looked up at him. "Good night, Miss Goodwitch. Or good morning as the case may be."

"But..." He maintained his pose until she ceased working with a sigh and finally stood up. "If you insist. However, Miss Adel has a point. Do we add this to the curriculum? It could be quite helpful, especially to students like Jaune Arc who lack combat experience when they arrive here."

"I'd rather know more about it from the source before we make that call," he replied while walking her to the elevator. "If there is still a source left to speak to. I can't imagine where they've ended up, if they're alive."

"Yes." With a few taps on her Scroll, Glynda shut off her desk computer and the lights on her shelves. "I'll be back to deal with arrangements for the new students later. Let me know if you hear anything before then. I've left a copy of the video on internal network storage for you to watch again, if you'd like."

"Thank you, and should I get in touch with them, you'll be among the first to know." A smiling Opzin tapped the button for her and sent her on her way – but the moment the doors closed between them, all traces of that smile left his face. He turned away, glaring out the windows at the rain. "Blue fire."

Much like Salem, he had access to generations of experience and knowledge, but _unlike_ the Aspect of Shadow, his perspective on that history was the exact opposite in some key places. He already knew the blue fire was no Dust, but the true art – an expression of which he hadn't seen for many thousands of years. His knee-jerk reaction was to immediately deploy his Maidens to scour the Emerald Forest again, searching for either more clues or corpses, but vast patience stayed his hand. After all, he had no idea how many loose ends were currently fluttering in the breeze. A stern reprimand of Qrow for speaking with Opher after he'd been strongly urged not to do so could also wait for now. His first innocuous Scroll message went to Amber, whom he instructed to meet him in his office. Olivine did not get a similar message – he'd have enough trouble dealing with her little sister alone, and it was his impression that the mountainous warrior wanted her space. After seeing the video evidence, he had suspicions about why.

Not ten minutes later, the Maiden came stumbling into that space, clad in her usual ensemble – cloak included. She stood with her hands on her knees as breath dove into, then launched itself, from her lungs. Only when the doors were securely closed behind her did she walk toward Ozpin's desk. "Gods help us!" were the first words she gasped. "What in the hell happened in the Emerald Forest?! That crash site has magic I've never felt before in my life! What do we do?! Do we call Raven? Do we call Miss-"

"Lady Grace!" he said, voice raised just enough to startle her into silence. "Deep breaths. Sit down."

She obeyed at length on unsteady steps, nearly falling into one of the chairs arranged in front of his workspace. "Ozpin, what's happening?" she asked again.

"Watch."

Amber leaned forward to get the best view possible of the video he brought up. Her uneasiness only increased the longer she stared at it. "Gods above… they can talk to the planet..." she whispered, watching Ruby and her friends leverage that power in the early part of their trial. Ozpin went farther ahead until Coco's arrival at the crash site, where Opher's appearance forced her to her feet. "It's him!" Then the blue fire dropped her right back down, lightheaded and wide-eyed with horror. "That's – gods – that's how holy magic _used_ to work."

"But it most certainly never looked like this. He's the one that taught them how to speak to Remnant as well. This problem just won't stop getting more complicated." Ozpin watched a trembling Amber pluck a cigarette, wrapped in tan paper, from one of her belt pouches, then light it with a wobbly flame from her fingertip and place it in her mouth. "You may have that one, but no more. I want you lucid."

"I know, I know," she confirmed between hasty puffs. "I just need to take the edge off. What do we do now?"

"Let's keep it simple." Ozpin waved his Scroll at her, then allowed his fingers to dance on the screen as he set up a call. Amber knew the recipient not long afterward. "Yes, Miss Stahl, this is Professor Ozpin. I do hope you and Mister Riese are well. We need to speak about last night – and trust me when I say that neither of you are in trouble. I just want to talk. Please call the campus at your earliest convenience and ask for me. Thank you."

"Are you serious? Playing Scroll tag is our best strategy at the moment?" she asked as he hung up, cigarette hanging limply from her lips.

"Glynda already tried, but perhaps a message from me will get things moving along – assuming they can still be put into motion." For once, there existed real anger on the usually-placid Headmaster's face. "I can't send out Qrow to look for him because the fool was around Riese last night. If I didn't need his magic to balance Lady Branwen, I'd let Olivine work him over for a while." With a sigh, he went back to calming Amber. "I have to assume he is compromised for now. The fact that I have no idea whatsoever where those two may have gone, after they parted ways with Glynda, means I can't just send you into the forest at random either. I want you both here in case they call back. If they never do… one problem solved, for the moment. We'll have to find other ways to answer the questions, but at least the immediate concern is dealt with."

"And if they aren't dead?"

Ozpin's face again grew dour. "An interrogation will be in order. When we know all we need to know, I will have the trash taken out."

"Of course." Amber drew long puffs off the burning tube of leaves, exhaling them in foggy clouds with uncomfortable sighs. "Raven is better suited for this than either of us, don't you think? I don't… I'm not sure I have the stomach for it, and Olivine is so strong she'd accidentally kill them in the process of trying to get anything."

"I would not spend a Maiden on such work, especially without knowing his full capability. And... kill _him_. I am reluctant to involve Miss Stahl immediately if I can avoid it."

She looked up with surprise. "Why not?"

"The Army seems to hold some interest in her whose details I have yet to determine. I have no desire to juggle an investigation from Central Command along with whatever else is going on here," he explained, settling back in his chair. "I may need to pull a few strings with our friend in the Staff Office to find out the problem. Then I'll know how best to deal with her."

Another puff as Amber mopped sweat from her brow – the contents of that cigarette were finally taking effect, if the deliberate nature of her breaths was any indication. She fiddled with something on her Scroll for a moment. "Why not just have the Queen sign a warrant? She's commander-in-chief of Vale's Army, right? Get the woman kicked out if she's going to get in the way."

"I am not going to directly instruct Her Majesty on a matter so specific without a very good reason." Still, he decided, it wasn't completely without merit, so he filed it away for later with a gentle smile in order to keep reassuring his antsy Maiden. "I will if I must, but the agenda for our end-of-year meeting is crowded enough as it is. Hopefully the matter will be concluded by then."

"You're the boss. I'm sorry. I wish I wasn't so high-strung, I just want..." The gentle smile on his wizened face calmed Amber into silence; after she accepted it with her own, she stared at the picture of Opher she still had on her Scroll. It was the same image she'd shown to Raven and Salem. "I let Miss Salem take a look at this. She couldn't pick out anything familiar about him."

"Asking one of us to remember a particular face, or even similarities to the same? You'd have better luck catching a particular fish from the ocean," an amused Ozpin replied. "This is why I want to know if there are others. If so, then we need to figure out how to find them." He paused to contemplate Opher's passport file photo again, where nothing peculiar stood out. "At least the Laochra Airgid have a physical mark which is somewhat easy to spot."

"She _did_ say it'd be a hassle to kill every green-eyed person on the planet." Amber shrugged at him when he looked over. "That would be… who knows what percentage of the population, anyway. I'm not sure we could do it if we wanted to."

"On that, I agree." He closed the file, frowning lightly. "I doubt such measures will be even remotely necessary."

"What do we do about what he showed them in the meantime?"

"Unless I determine otherwise, it would appear to be a relatively isolated problem; not unlike the unfortunate incident with Lady Tanager, rest her soul. It isn't a difficult fire to put out. We can handle it." Harder rainfall against the windows behind him caused to look over his shoulder. "Glynda's natural cautiousness is helping us as we speak. She's told the students to keep quiet. Pressuring the students to remain so won't be hard until they can be dispatched quietly."

Amber cocked her head at this assessment. "Hold on a second. Didn't Miss Salem have to wipe out a continent the last time this-"

Ozpin raised his hand. "Don't spend your vigor on jumping to conclusions, Lady Grace, you look tired enough. I know this is your generation's first encounter with a potential crisis like this, but trust me when I say Salem and I know what to do." After a breath, plus a sip of coffee, he added, "If Stahl and Riese are dead, this will be even easier to handle." His eyes went back to the unsteady Maiden. "There's no need to lose your cool. Have you seen your sister at all this morning?"

"Uh, no, but..." Amber pointed at her Scroll. "I just sent her a message about it being him. If that doesn't get a rise out of her, I'll go see her myself." Moments after this promise, however, her device emitted a chime. She read the new message, face blank with thought until the moment it was fully processed. "I… I think I need to go."

He rose as she did, face tight with worry. "Is something the matter?"

"Ah, you know. The wisdom of Maidens." One wave later, Amber was on her way to the elevator. "Are you going to send anyone out at all to look for them? Here or in Vale?"

"Here, yes, but I doubt they made it back to-" He fell silent, recalling the video, and discarded that notion. Expectations no longer applied; better to cover all his bases. "Perhaps you have a point. I'll ask the police in Vale to look for them there, if by some miracle they made it back. I don't see how they could have gotten in without anyone noticing, though."

"Might be that I was right before and Riese is covering for people who can help him in that way." She tapped the button to open the doors. "Gods. What a way to start the weekend. I'll be in touch if Olivine has anything you need to know – I mean, if she doesn't tell you herself."

With it still so dark, the cloaked Maiden had little concern about anyone else being present in the mist and fog once she got outside. Raising her hood and wrapping herself in the dark green fabric defeated the light rain. She bounced along the stone walkways on hasty, almost skipped steps, making a beeline toward the north side of Beacon where the teachers and other staff who stayed on the campus lived – which included herself and Olivine in their professed roles as Huntresses attached to the Academy. Their dorm wasn't unlike the ones for the students, though its exterior was covered in a curious bluish-gray flagstone cladding. She darted through the carpeted lobby and right up the nearest set of stairs to the top floor, then down the hallway to reach the western corner of the building where their rooms were located.

The red door she cared about was closed. "Ah… Olivine?" she called, knocking thrice.

Seconds later, the weary giant appeared, opening it and looking down at her diminutive counterpart with bleary chrome eyes. Her green hair was a rat's nest of uncontrolled locks. "I should have known you'd come see me in person."

"Yes, well." Amber invited herself in as Olivine gave way. The warrior's pale, topless frame earned a brief glance before her eyes went elsewhere – most of that split-second was spent on the giant old gash that tore across her chiseled lower torso. "I wanted to put a face to what we felt. I didn't know it would be his."

While she closed the door, Amber used wind magic to launch her cloak onto a nearby coat hook, as well as to flick on the overhead lights. To call Olivine's room austere would have been generous; while she had the same furniture, blue carpet, and white walls as her little sister's room, as well as plentiful shelving, there was nothing on those shelves to betray the identity or tastes of the occupant – despite this being the only place she stayed whenever she lingered near Vale for any period of time. While her eyes narrowed against the glare, Amber plopped down on the red sofa, but she refused to make eye contact. "What? Like you haven't seen these things before."

"Or maybe you're just showing off. Again." She crossed her arms and stared into space until Olivine retreated into a different room for a moment. When she returned, she wore a simple white tank top to pacify her shy sister. "Thank you."

"I wanna talk to him."

The hand-wringing began. "We don't know where they are. Even if we did… I don't think it's a good idea until we figure out whether or not he can see our power." The whole couch moved slightly as Olivine sat next to her, hunched over and staring at the carpet. Amber had never seen her carry herself like this before. "You don't look well."

"The Maiden knows his magic. She's been screaming at me all night." Her hands went to the sides of her head. "Still is. Lots of words I don't understand, but some I do."

Amber scooted over to rub her broad shoulder. "What can you make out?"

"Endless loop. The magic is too old to be this strong. The magic is too strong to be this old. Maybe that's why I thought he looked familiar. She must know one of his ancestors." Olivine looked over, tapping her breastbone with a weak smile. "A whole new bloodline of magicians. We're gonna be busy."

"Yes, no, maybe so." Seized by a motherly streak, Amber tried to smooth down those green strands of hair which flew off the most dramatically. "Mine hasn't said a word about it… I'm not sure if that's good or bad."

A grumpy Olivine swatted her hand away. Just how worried she was about this new problem came out in her next statement. "You might be right about Ruby Rose. Her mom made Salem unhappy enough, and now we've got this? Nah. Let's pull the bush up before it blooms. I… don't think we should wait."

That she was willing to give up the chance to fight a fully-trained Ruby startled Amber a bit. She looked away and frowned at the carpet. "We can get rid of her any time." After a gentle, thoughtful sigh, she added, "Then again, now that she knows how to speak to the planet, perhaps you're right. I don't know. Maybe we just leave her alone for now, we know where she's going to be." The couch moved again, indicating some surprise from the larger Maiden. "Oh, yeah. It seems he taught them to do that, too. No wonder he can burn Dust so-"

Her failure to complete the thought drew Olivine's curious eye. "What?"

"No..." she finally breathed. "That can't be all. Not even Remnant's retort would leave Ash as fine as we felt that day." A hilarious nose scrunch from her big sister caused Amber's lips to curl up with amusement. "Hmm?"

"You've been smoking that shit again, haven't you?" She frowned when Amber confirmed this with a nod. "Do you..."

So unusual was the request that it wouldn't leave her mouth, but it was understood all the same. Amber reached into her pouch and produced one of the cigarettes. "Here. Just one, though. Especially since you're not used to them."

"Amber, look at me. I'm gonna need at least two." Like her sister, she lit it with a fingertip flame and placed it carefully between her puffy lips. "Maybe this'll help shut her up so I can get some sleep."

* * *

Trees. Everywhere. Ruby was in the silent embrace of the Emerald Forest yet again, shuffling through the tall grass and darkness alike – alone. Entirely alone. No team around her. No Pyrrha either. No teachers. Nobody. Just one antsy young girl and all the Grimm Sanus had to offer, prowling somewhere unseen in the thick woods which surrounded her. Their sound was the only proof they existed, growled uncertainties as they played a game of hot and cold to home in on her anxiety. Crescent Rose sat in her trembling hands, unfurled into its full scythe form. Breath left her mouth in foggy clouds despite the sweltering, humid air.

_If you wanna kill me, then kill me!_

Why she couldn't say this out loud wasn't important. All that mattered were the monsters, waiting, always in the corner of her eye whenever she snapped her head to look but no more distinct than shadow. With time, they became the trees, impossible to tell apart from the scenery until Ruby found herself in a writhing timberland _made_ of the beasts. Varieties existed which she knew – Beowolves, Creeps, and the like – plus others like the towering, elephantine Goliaths whose pictures she'd only seen in books. There were others too, though, types she'd never seen before. Armored centipedes twisting like vines around the legs of Geists which had seized icebergs as bodies. Ape-like monsters four times her height, whose forelimbs ended in heavy fists that sank into the soil whenever they moved. One species of creatures that sped across the forest floor resembled meter-long weasels, though their white back fur was made of razor-sharp edges and not hair. Upon looking up, she saw a night sky devoid of stars and Moon, filled instead with Nevermores, giant wasps, and leathery-winged nightmares whose flight membranes added crimson to the black and white typhoon. Counting the monsters was as impossible as formulating a way to get out of the maelstrom alive.

Except they never came.

A hundred million years slid past with monsters of all descriptions staring Ruby right in her silver eyes, but none of them approached. Piles of them existed now, squirming over each other in black masses of death, forming a sharp ring about ten meters distant in every direction. She turned around to bolt, only to see a humanoid figure whose coloration matched the Grimm thanks to its white cloak and the indistinct, feminine shape it covered. The hood of the cloak was up, though where a face should have been there was only a gaping black hole, violated by a pair of silvery rings which were spaced to resemble eyes. Despite the searing terror which boiled her blood, Ruby couldn't make herself attack this being even though it was barely a meter away. In fact, the longer she looked at the void under its hood, the less fear she felt.

_They will revile you._

Four rocket-propelled words right to the brain, whose origin was beyond Ruby's ability to guess. "What…?" finally departed her lungs as a gasp just before molten pain embraced her skull and dripped down into her eye sockets. It became so fierce that she had to scream. No sound would come out. She shot up in her bed, sweating, gasping for air, whole head throbbing with agony. Her eyes felt like they'd dislodged themselves and were hanging by their nerves before the pain subsided, quickly, into something more akin to a migraine. With one hand pressed over her face, she emitted a quiet stream of "Ow!" for over a minute before regaining enough gumption to open the unhappy organs and look around.

Processing the experience was impossible while she felt so awful, so her focus went to breathing and waiting for the misery to retreat instead. In this room, as in her dream, Ruby was alone. The rest of her team occupied infirmary beds to mend their beaten-up bodies. It was the first night Ruby had spent in an empty room since… well, she literally couldn't remember a previous instance thanks to sisterly inseparability. Hatred of the circumstances leaked out in a single word. "Frick." She bitterly regretted not staying, but the clinic was so packed with patients that there wasn't much choice, nor a bed to spare. A look at her Scroll caused, at first, more pain thanks to the bright light, then a frown. Not even six o'clock yet. The campus was still waiting for dawn. She used the mirror function to check her eyes and found nothing of concern – no burst blood vessels, only tears. Now capable of thinking past the pain, she began to contemplate her nightmare. "Who was that?"

No amount of reasoning or grimacing got her any closer to an answer, so she decided to breathe instead. One breath, two breaths, on the road back toward steadiness, if not tranquility. Sleep fluttered beyond her weary clutches now; in its absence, Ruby needed to move around. She threw on comfortable clothes – not her usual ensemble, but a t-shirt and short pants in the same color motif instead – crammed her feet into a pair of silver-and-red sneakers, then departed the empty room for parts unknown. Rain pelted her gently when she made it outside. "Aw..."

Ruby's first thought was to go to the infirmary, but there was no way any of them were awake – no point in sending a Scroll message either. Both of those options would only wake everyone up, which was the last thing she wanted to do. Her next thought was Uncle Qrow, but she didn't want to wander all the way to the staff residence and wake him up either, given how late most of the teachers and their charges had come back thanks to the military closure of the airspace. Instead, she cast her silver eyes around the dorm complex before braving the drizzle in search of _some_ kind of company. Easier said than done – no lights were on in any of the buildings as she walked past, except for the lobby of building eleven on the other end toward Beacon Tower. Through the windows, she saw a pink pajama-clad Velvet Scarlatina fussing with a vending machine and came to a stop to watch. When their eyes met, the rabbit Faunus startled so badly that her legs tangled up – she fell out of sight with a barely-audible squeak. "Oh!" she gasped sympathetically, running toward the door and peeking inside. She found Velvet in a groaning heap. "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"You just…" A shaky breath. "...scared me." With some effort, she hauled herself to her feet, ears still erect with terror. "Um..."

The Faunus' makeup job wasn't quite up to snuff – as such, Ruby could see faint shadows of the scars on her face, a sight which tugged viciously at her heartstrings. Velvet's nervousness fueled that fire, and she, recalling something Blake said, realized her company was probably unwanted. "Oh, right, I'll leave," she said, already withdrawing back out through the doorway. "Sorry again-"

This quick perception earned Velvet's gratitude, plus a little bravery. Ruby was a friend of Blake – and, importantly, not Weiss – so she was probably safe. Besides, she'd decided she better at least _try_ to interact with people, since so many new faces would be on campus in a few days. "No, it's okay. You're B-Blake's team leader, right?" she asked, brushing the dirt from her pants legs.

"Oh, yeah!" Tired of being rained on, she stepped into the lobby, consciously keeping a lot of distance between herself and Velvet in case the Faunus decided she wanted to go. She studied her expression curiously. "What's up?"

One rabbit ear became halfway floppy, a sign that her anxiety was in retreat for the moment. "How is she? I didn't see her after the trial last night," she explained while picking up a ring full of keys which laid near her bare feet.

"She's fine. We all got pretty beat up, but, you know. We're still kicking!" Ruby shuffled one foot awkwardly. "Um…" Before she could collect her thoughts, Velvet stepped back over to the vending machine, bent down, and used her key to unlock it. The glass front swung open. " _Whoa_?! You can open those?"

Ruby's expression of her amazement, all wide-eyed with arms splayed up, put a smile on Velvet's face. "Well, sure, I work here. Part of my job is to help keep track of inventory so we can keep them stocked. Want something? I was getting a snack for Coco."

" _Please_." Her dash over to the machine startled the Faunus again, though not badly enough to tip her over. One hand on Velvet's shoulder ensured this. "Oh, whoops. My bad. I'm really hungry. You won't… like, you won't get into trouble for this, will you?"

"Nah. I just write down what I get and then the administration takes the money out of my pay. No worries."

"Okay." Ruby piled three bags of various chips into the crook of one arm. "What do I owe you?"

"I'll take care of it." They looked up to see Coco, still dressed the same way as she'd been for her visit with Glynda, though minus the shoes, walk down the stairs. "Oh, so you're too busy making new friends to bring me candy bars, okay. I see how it is."

"Ah..." Velvet, blushing, waved this off before grabbing a few items out of the machine herself and closing it back up. "She's not – she just wanted to apologize for scaring me, that's all."

"Girl, everyone scares you." Snickering ensued as Velvet moved over and smacked her gently on the arm – which she lifted so the Faunus could hug her side. "Thought you'd be in the infirmary with your team," she said to Ruby.

"There wasn't enough room." Pondering about last night's experience produced a question Ruby could no longer avoid with small talk. "Look, uh, I know you talked to Blake..." Instant tension from both Coco and Velvet caused her to raise a hand. "I'm not asking what you said! Just, well, is it _really, really_ bad? The Grimm went after them hard last night, and, um..."

"Yes," Coco said. "It's that bad. But there's nothing any of you can do about it, so… I'd just try to move on."

"Gotcha. We'll figure it out. I won't pry. I don't think I'm even allowed to." A nervous, smiling Ruby made for the door. "Thanks for the food! Sorry for the scare, Velvet! You seem really nice! No wonder Blake likes you!" She was gone before either girl could raise their voice to stop her.

Where she'd head next, exactly, was another issue. Back to the empty dorm? No thanks. Being by herself until she could be sure her sister and friends were awake would drive Ruby insane, especially with the amount of uncomfortable thoughts rattling around in her skull. Raindrops gently thumped her hair as she crammed chips into her mouth and considered her options. An idea struck: Beacon's chapel. Even if it was empty, she'd have the gods as company. A couple of minutes of running – and eating, since she didn't dare risk dropping crumbs in the gods' house – got her to the structure's front doors, where she dumped the empty packages in a trash can and scrubbed her feet hard on the mat to avoid tracking water inside. As for the wetness that stuck to her clothes, one good Semblance dash back and forth under the protection of the chapel's awning got her dry enough to feel good about going in. Toward the front, in a pew to her left about ten rows back from the illuminated icon, she saw two unexpected heads. One sported a blue beret, the other a crooked pink bow. Careful not to be a bother, she quietly sneaked toward the other row of pews.

Penny, thanks to her 360-degree sensor suite, detected her anyway and turned to wave. "Ah! Ruby! Hello!" When she hesitated, the android stood up and waved her over with both hands. "Come sit with us!"

"Penny," her seated partner sighed between her fingers. "If she doesn't want to-" She went silent and looked over as Ruby started to approach. "Never mind."

On the way, she stopped in the center of the aisle and executed a brief prayer before the icon, bowing her head, before taking a seat beside Ciel. While Penny was dressed as usual, Ciel had swapped her battle outfit for a gorgeous, deep blue strapless dress that fell to her knees. A pair of black, heavy boots with thick tread were on her feet. The black, fingerless elbow gloves she often wore were missing. Out of respect for the quiet atmosphere, Ruby kept her voice low. "Hey! I hope Uncle Qrow wasn't too much of a pain to work with last night."

"Oh, no, not at all," Penny assured her with an unyielding smile. "He's quite a fighter, although for some reason he refused to use his Semblance."

"And he carries a flask," Ciel added. "Which I thought was curious."

Some extremely awkward neck-rubbing ensued. "Ooooo… yeah, um, his Semblance is… well, see, when he activates it, it causes bad luck. For everybody. Including himself. It can be little stuff, like tripping over your own feet, or bigger stuff like your weapon jamming. He never uses it when he's fighting in a group. As for the flask..." Ruby needed to breathe a moment before answering that inquiry. "Please don't judge him too much. He's had it rough. He didn't drink from it while you were there, did he?" Both of them shook their heads, putting a smile on her face. "I knew it. He wouldn't do that. He's a total pro."

Penny flicked her a salute and a smile of her own. "If you trust him, I will too." She gently jostled Ciel until the girl nodded her own affirmation. "It's unanimous!"

Ruby couldn't help but laugh at the look on Ciel's face before adding, "Come to thank the gods for keeping you out of the infirmary? Seriously. You made us look kinda bad."

"Ciel should have gone herself, thanks to… hmph! I'm mad." The puffy-cheeked, abruptly grumpy android turned her bright eyes to her partner, who refused to acknowledge it for several seconds. "You should tell her."

"She already knows." Both of them were looking at her now – Ruby's puzzled expression caused those aquamarine orbs to widen with surprise. "Wait, don't you? Didn't Coco tell you what happened when we found the crashed airship?"

"No? She never said anything about it, not even after you guys left with Uncle Qrow." Silence brought worry, which tightened her face until it resulted in a frown. "What happened?"

Ciel slumped forward, arms on her knees, with a sigh. "That guy happened. Coco was about to, erm, _n_ _eutralize_ the Stahl woman so her emotions wouldn't attract the Grimm and… he didn't like that." When she looked up again, a horrified Ruby had both hands on her head. "I'm fine."

"Crap, I had no idea she was gonna… yeah. Forget it. I guess that would tick him off pretty bad." Some calming breaths were in order as she mentally debated whether or not to ask Pyrrha for Opher's Scroll number, since she was still the only one of them who had it. This internal argument rendered her quiet for a moment. "I guess it could have been worse. What did he do to you guys?"

"Pretty sure he punched Coco. He struck me with some kind of lightning." Glances went over to Penny next, whose agitation was gone in favor of her default light smile. "If he was using Dust, it was even stranger than that stuff you all were doing last night. What gives?"

"Oh! Now that we don't have about a billion Grimm up our butts, I'll show you! I mean, at least what _we_ were doing. Just, uh, don't tell Miss Goodwitch about it and don't tell anyone else, either, okay? She wants to make sure it's safe for everyone to do first, which means she's gotta talk to Opher, so, you know." Ruby got to her feet, more than prepared to demonstrate, save one issue: she had none of the precious material on her person. "But we should be okay for a test run... wait. I'm not packing any Dust. Crap." Cheeks red with embarrassment, she sat back down. "I'm so used to wearing my combat kit, I just… never mind."

"I've got some!" Penny shook one of the wide beige sleeves of her blouse, then pulled out the cuff which held it snugly around her wrist. Sure enough, a gleaming blue crystal came out and landed securely in her palm. "What should I do?"

"Follow me." Ruby led them out back into the aisle and about halfway between the entrance and the icon, sneakers squeaking. "Set it down on the floor, back all the way up toward the icon, just to make sure, then – and look, I know this is gonna sound weird – ask it to go off. Like a prayer. Out loud or in your head is fine. Anybody can do it." She expected the perplexed disbelief on Ciel's face and shrugged. "We don't get it either."

Penny, having just placed the stone on the gleaming floor, chirped a happy "I'll try first!" which sent all three moving backward toward the shining icon as Ruby instructed. Once a good distance had been reached, she clasped her hands in front of herself, eyed the crystal, and said, "Please explode?" Nothing happened. She looked at Ciel for advice, got only a shrug, then toward a completely baffled Ruby before staring at the blue Dust several meters away.

"So, uh..." the bronze-skinned girl mumbled. "Is this supposed to happen?"

"I'll try again?" The android even cleared her throat – that she could do this was a testament to the thoroughness of her design and construction – before repeating the question. "Please… explode?" Her face screwed up adorably when the stone failed to heed her request. "Perhaps I'm asking the wrong way. Please do things? Please-"

It remained dormant. "Okay, Penny, I don't think it's going to work." Ciel, hands on her hips, frowned briefly. "What gives? I thought you said anyone could do it."

"I dunno!" Ruby shrugged apologetically at both girls. "You wanna try, Ciel?"

After sneaking a glance at her wristwatch, she nodded her agreement, then crossed her arms over her chest in prayer – after all, Ruby _did_ say it was supposed to be like a conversation with the gods. Before she could even get the words out of her mouth, the crystal began to glow. "What?!" she gasped, retreating one step in surprise. Instead of erupting in a spray of liquid, as expected, the stone gently burbled out its water content into a puddle on the floor, clear liquid mixed with the fine Ash of its expiration. "How did-"

Another helpless shrug from Ruby. "We're still trying to figure it out."

"Oh… was I supposed to do the cross?" Penny asked. An answer would have to wait as Ciel suddenly burst into tears. The android tugged her partner into a tight hug. "Ciel?"

"I'm fine-" Or she was, until Penny's powerful grip began to cause her more than a little discomfort. "Air, Penny, I need air!" she chided firmly, squirming in her arms.

"She hugs Yang-style, huh?" A cackling Ruby gently cut in to save the girl from being reassured so hard by tapping the android on the shoulder. "Ciel's fine, we all cried when we first did this. Before you ask, no, we don't know why that happens either. We don't know _a lot_ about it yet." Out came her Scroll, fingers dancing on the screen as she added another note to her already abundant collection on the matter. "I thought it was something anyone could do. Hrm…"

"I'm sure it was my mistake." Penny blinked when Ruby's Scroll emitted a series of happy chimes and she stopped typing. "Oh? Did something happen?"

She needed a second to process the newly-arrived message before responding. "Yang and Pyrrha are getting released from the infirmary!" she cheered, spinning on her heels with glee – too fast, as she experienced a dizzy stumble right after and needed Ciel to steady her. "W-whoops. I'd better go meet 'em. See you guys later!" She was off, sprinting down the aisle, although she did take a moment to grab one of the yellow signs near the entrance which warned about slippery floors and place it near the puddle in the aisle first.

The android waited until she'd left completely before guiding Ciel to a nearby pew to sit her down. Continued sniffling caused Penny to issue another hug. "Maybe you should go to the meditation hall."

"I'm not sad." Despite this assurance, a whole forearm was necessary for her to fully dry her tears. "It's… I don't know. Feels kind of cathartic."

"Cathartic?" Penny stared at the icon with eyes that were a little more dead than before – much of her processing power was directed toward other matters at the moment. "If everyone else can do this and I can't, it might turn into a tell."

"You have a point." Calm returned to her at last; she sat up straight and doffed her beret for a second to pat at her deep blue, precisely-trimmed hair. "Did you let the Colonel know?"

"I will, yes, but I'm still trying to detect what's happening here. I know Weiss mentioned an unusual Aura charge state in their chat with Riese, but I didn't detect anything strange at all. Hmm. I'll send the data in a few minutes if I can't figure something out." Her eye twitched as the collected information conflicted with what her programming expected to see, but she was able to write it to a log after a second of stiff, unnatural standing. More life returned to her form as she finished crunching something else in her false skull – testing which had been the reason both girls were in here in the first place. "Send-receive functionality seems to be better thanks to the metal reflectivity factor, but scanning? Not so much. Maybe I'll sneak in to transmit from now on." One bit of news in this particular incoming backlog caused her face to go blank. "You have a new Scroll number in your contacts list."

"What?" She plucked the device from a subtle hip pocket, snapped it open, and found Penny spoke the truth – at the top of the list was a number without an associated picture she'd never seen before. "Vale POC… point of contact? Did the Colonel send someone down here? Your dad, maybe?"

"Father would, he's such a worry-wart… oh. Hm." Additional information caused her to shake her head. "No, it wasn't either of them. I think it's the man upstairs."

* * *

Why was there a guy in her bed?

The next instant killed whatever sleepy worry Indigo felt – it was just Opher, of course. Hopeful that her surprised jerk hadn't woken him up, she froze stiff, watching what of him wasn't underneath the mauve-colored blanket. There was no change to his rhythmic breathing, nor his splayed out posture across her bed, so she released a quiet sigh of relief, carefully slipped out from under his tattooed appendage, and out of the bed to try and get her morning started. Her first act was to fetch her collapsed Scroll from the pocket of her very short navy blue shorts to check for missed calls. Two voicemails were present, so she walked out into the hall, propelled by sticky-sounding bare footsteps on the hard floor as she made for the living room. Immense dread prevented her from checking who had left those messages.

Upon one of the glorious black couches sat her best friend. Schwarze was in much the same sort of outfit as Indigo; her own tank top was red with a gold polka dot pattern unlike the swarthy woman's solid white top, and a pair of gray sweatpants clung to her hips – the same clothes she had been wearing when Indigo and Opher got back to her apartment. Her long black hair, while not tied up, was still rested in its preferred position, draped over her right shoulder and down over her breast. She said nothing even after acknowledging Indigo's presence with a brief glance. Though the sun had long since risen – unfortunately on the other side of the building – the gray pall coming in through her windows was beaten down by the light from the giant projection TV in the corner, which currently showed one of Vale's many late morning news shows.

"Did… did you ever leave last night?" Indigo asked after a pregnant pause.

"I went back to my unit and tried to sleep, but I couldn't." Schwarze's vision remained on the screen.

Rubbing firmly at her ochre eyes, she took a seat on the taller woman's right, unable to figure out when or how to bring up the Goliath in the room. "Schwarze..." That pale face of hers was solid rock, blank as a sheet of paper. Even her lips occupied a perfectly neutral line. She couldn't figure out what to say, so she uttered nothing.

"I see the Schnees are sending another excursion to Menagerie soon. I wonder if they'll ask my father to go." With time, Schwarze's lips grew wavy. Her icy eyes collected a few tears. "Why did you do it?"

"Why did I do-" The rest of the sentence derailed in her throat and got stuck – she knew exactly what her friend meant. "Why do you think?" was her answer, one that came only after a few awkward seconds of staring at the black barbed-wire pattern tattoos on her thighs.

An unusual emotion darkened Schwarze's face: anger. Her bitter gaze went down toward Indigo, and, teeth bared, she spat, "How many gods damned times does Doctor Acker have to tell you that you cannot fill that hole, no matter what you do? You could have died. You _would_ have died if not for him!" She pointed toward the bedroom for emphasis and kept on trucking. "I know it hurts you. It hurts me too, but jumping on an airship so you can throw your life away is not the answer!" Overwhelmed, she burst into tears, hunched over and hiding her face with both hands.

Indigo gently wrapped an arm around her sobbing friend and fought the urge to weep herself. "I just wanted to be on the other side for once," she whispered sadly. "I couldn't… I couldn't pass up a chance like that."

Schwarze snorted up an obnoxious-sounding breath, which exited as continued scolding. "You absolute fool. You're my only friend! What am I supposed to do if you get exiled or die?"

"I dunno, go back to one of your family's fancy mansions?" Indigo not only expected the shove she got in reply, but completely accepted it and fell limp across the arm of the sofa where she came to rest a moment later. She languished there, stayed by the weight of regret. "I really shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

"Yes, perhaps you should just shut up for a while." At least it had gotten Schwarze to stop crying – instead, she glared at the TV, arms crossed tightly. "And you seem to have forgotten that I am perfectly capable of kicking your cute little butt all over this apartment."

"As hilarious as that would be to watch, I'm gonna have to register my disapproval." The two startled women looked up as Opher shuffled from the mouth of the hallway to the other couch and sat down. He was clad in equally comfy clothing – a black short-sleeved t-shirt with a chest pocket contained his Scroll, and red boxer shorts – plus a brand new hat on his head, emblazoned with red, black, white, and gray woodland-style camouflage. "Then again, if you wanna keep arguing, I guess I can just go back to bed."

"Oh, no!" Schwarze chirped, content to drop her anger for now in hopes that he hadn't heard _too_ much of their little spat. The full sleeve of dark symbols on his left arm caught her eye, but just for a moment. She chuckled anxiously. "Ah… how long have you been spying on us?"

"I saw the whole thing." He raised a hand to quell their shock, before either could speak. "Look, I don't care right now. That's between you two. Well..." A smile appeared as he stroked his chin teasingly. "Except the fancy mansion part. What else are you hiding from me, Miss Voss?"

"I'm-!" Schwarze crossed her arms again, this time with a loud huff. "Tease me, will you? I heard some noises last night I could tease you about for weeks. Both of you!"

"I mean… I'm not gonna say I didn't enjoy myself," a fiercely blushing Indigo mumbled.

Opher, however, was unmoved by the jab and only smirked. "First, it was her idea to try and relax. Second, you could have joined in. I'm sure you know how big her bed is." Satisfied that they were flustered enough to defuse any further strife between them for the moment, he moved back toward more serious topics. "Seriously. Don't fight. It doesn't look good on you two."

"We only fight when _she_ is being foolish," she insisted, pointing briefly at Indigo. "And I suppose we're on edge because we aren't really sure what happens next."

"Except for you, Mister I-Never-Give-A-Shit," Indigo added, jealous of the leisurely way he was draped across the other sofa. "Bastard. Are you smoking piper behind our backs? You better watch it, you know how tightly that shit is regulated."

Opher flicked his hand dismissively. "Excuse you, my calm is all natural." All three stewed quietly for a while, watching but not watching the TV, until he added, "So, you've had a little while to think about what I showed you last night."

After exchanging a glance with Indigo, Schwarze straightened up, hands clasped in her lap, and related her experience. "I tried it on three ice crystals for my climate control. They're _still d_ _ischarging_. My apartment's never stayed so cool for so long." Her usually-cheerful face hardened with passion. "Do you realize what this means? If people could use a little Dust for hours instead of popping crystals constantly, we'd be able to move away from fuel oil for constant propulsion. It wouldn't be necessary to send people out to hunt down deposits and open mines so often. Prices would go down – why, it could solve so much of the gravity Dust bottleneck that every Kingdom could expand their air forces and drive the Grimm even farther back! Just imagine it… maybe we could even build whole new Kingdoms." Driven to her feet by that fervor, she looked down at Opher – whose idle expression remained mostly unchanged – and placed her hands on her hips. "Why on Remnant have you been sitting on such a thing? Your name should be just as famous as ours _or_ the Schnees."

All he really cared about at the moment was the unbelievable canyon between his understanding of the world and the modern version. Worse still was the apparent lack of knowledge among the two groups he thought would have maintained its passage the best: soldiers and Grimm slayers. It gave him a headache – or it would have were his Aura not so good at deleting the sensation of pain whenever it could. "Are you seriously telling me I'm the only one that knows about this?" he asked, swinging around to face her.

Indigo straightened up as well, slicking back her blue hair with both hands to get it out of her eyes. "You might not be the only one, but you're sure as hell the first person _I've_ ever met that can do it. It never came up in training for us. And if anyone would know about a new priming state, it'd be her and her fucking family."

One thing Opher had learned while determining just how much information had been lost – a task he'd started after speaking with Pyrrha in Beacon's chapel – was the connotations attached to the Voss name, Remnant's so-called first family of Dust. He peered up at the Atlesian from underneath his hat. "Hold on, are you actually a..."

Schwarze tossed her obsidian locks and assumed an air which would have been familiar coming from Weiss Schnee. "Many have claimed our name since the discovery of Dust, but, no, I am part of the _real_ Voss family tree." Then she relaxed back into her usual demeanor. "Which doesn't matter right now, cutie! You've got to tell everyone about what you know!"

"What I've got to do right now is make sure we're not about to get exiled." His green eyes went to Indigo. "Has anyone called looking for us?"

"Er..." She plucked her Scroll out of her pocket and flicked it open, staring at the two notifications. "Twice. I haven't listened to the voicemails yet. May as well get it over with now." So they did, hearing Glynda's voice first, then Ozpin's. Since neither message carried anything beyond a desire to get back in touch – and Ozpin's tone sounded nearly apologetic – Indigo lost some of her tension and slumped forward a bit. "They don't seem pissed, I guess? I'm… gonna wait, though. I think we need a good cover story first."

"Yeah, and I suspect they're probably mad about what I did to those kids." Opher regarded Schwarze's frown with a shrug. "We've been over this. I would have killed them both to save Indigo. _Would_ have. Knocking them out was me ensuring it never got that far." Indigo's renewed blushing across the way caused him to crack a tiny grin.

"Yes, but assaulting two people, then breaking into a Kingdom… how in the world are we going to explain how you two got back?" She began to pace around the living room. "People aren't capable of sustained flight for such distances, even if they have the right Semblance." Another thought stopped her and made her stare at him until he looked back. "If we're going to build a nice story together, then you need to tell us how you used Dust to fly back here."

"Uh..." He chose to duck his head, forcing them to look at the wide brim of his hat and not his uncertain face. If nothing else, it was another chance to gauge the relationship of the current population to Dust, although he dreaded the answers he'd get. "What do you know about Dust efficiency?"

"That it gets better the stronger your Aura becomes," Indigo replied. "Like Schwarze can make a crystal go off with more power 'cause her Aura is more intense than mine."

"You're right—wait, what? Hers is stronger?" Opher blinked as she posed with a grin. "Huh. Books and their covers."

"I may not have quite as much muscle as Indy does, but I'm no slouch." She waved at him to proceed. "Keep going!"

"Right, anyway, that's not what I mean. Manually primed Dust is the least efficient, but wearing it in clothes or as jewelry increases that efficiency by quite a bit." The amount of confusion which screwed up their faces made him go quiet before he could introduce the next concept. _Fuck me, it's worse than I thought_.

Indigo crossed her arms, brow furrowed in contemplation. "Why the hell would you wear Dust? Just carrying it in pouches is kinda risky. We weren't allowed to carry it full time until halfway through our BCT."

"Because if you accidentally prime it, you take the full force of the detonation," Schwarze added. "We had to go through two solid months of reflection training to get our Auras stabilized before we were even issued pouches."

He scratched his head at this – most of the kids at Beacon seemed to carry pouches already, but then again, based on what he knew, they also started their training at a much earlier age. The _quality_ of that training was something he had yet to ascertain. "It's a lot safer than you think. I used to wear Dust bracelets all the time and I'm still here." Opher stood up to deliver his next revelation. "What I showed you is slightly more efficient still, but… if you stab Dust crystals into your flesh, though, it's ten times as efficient at least."

Confusion twisted into horror on their faces. "That's insanity! Dust poisoning would kill you within hours!" Schwarze blurted out. "Don't tell me you've ever-"

When Opher nodded at this, Indigo jumped from her seat, propelled by a realization. "Gods help me… your Semblance makes you invincible. You could stab Dust into your body and absorb the damage until it turns to Ash! You crushed that gravity crystal in your hand, let the shards stab you, and used your Semblance to stop the poison!"

"Did he?" Schwarze's blue eyes darted between them for a moment. "Cutie?"

"You caught me," he lied with a shrug.

The Atlesian lost herself in thought. "I suppose Ash _is_ inert, but I can't recall any testing for its effects on humans or Faunus… then again, you're okay, so maybe… hmm," she mumbled, rubbing her chin.

"Son of a bitch." Indigo tugged her hair back yet again and started to pace. "Okay, I guess that covers one part—hold on, you said it only lasts for a few seconds. How did you-" Knocking at the door shut her up. She darted over to the small screen next to it, attached to a camera in the hallway, to see who it was, and found Nila Ward standing there with her hands clasped behind her back. A holstered pistol was in clear view. "I think this is a cop," she mumbled anxiously.

Upon seeing exactly who it was, Opher emitted a sigh. "Talk to her," he said, nodding at Indigo.

"Uh..." She obliged him, poking her upper body around it to say hello. "What's up? Can I help you?"

Nila donned a much warmer expression than the one she'd greeted Opher with days earlier. "Good morning." She flashed her badge for identification purposes. "Detective Nila Ward, Vale Police. I'm just here for a wellness check. May I come in?"

Indigo looked to Opher for advice, got a nod, then yielded so Nila could walk inside. "Sure, I guess. They're sending detectives to do that now?" she asked while closing the door.

Schwarze also got a smile from the golden-eyed cop. "I was in the area for something else and my shift's about to end anyway, figured I'd pick up the call so a patrol officer wouldn't have..." Then she saw Opher and lost all of her calm for a second. "...to… uh… to come all the way here. Excuse me a second." Her next words went into the microphone on the lapel of her white blazer. "Dispatch, D1C Ward."

"Go ahead."

Beads of sweat appeared on her bronze forehead – thank the gods the damn thing actually worked this time. "The subject of that failed check on Verusa Avenue is at my call. I'll take it from here."

"10-4, will advise patrol."

"Have you two met?" a curious Indigo asked, instinctively standing next to Schwarze for comfort.

"She's the detective that thought my passport was fake," he replied with a wry smile. Shortly afterward, he returned to his seat on the couch, which prompted his two friends to do the same. "Don't be shy," he said, motioning for Nila to sit down on the other end of his sofa; she only obliged after a long moment.

Schwarze took it upon herself to vacate the area so they could talk a little more freely. "Oh! I should go make some coffee for everyone!" After whispering something to Indigo, she rose and pranced away into the kitchen to get started. "Be right back!"

Nila tugged at the collar of her purple blouse. "Uh, thank you. I could use the pep." Out came her Scroll so she could eyeball a few details about the situation. "Why did we get this call from Beacon, exactly?"

After a shared glance, Indigo decided to take charge and spoke up first. "We were up there for a merchant meeting when the Grimm attacked. I volunteered to help fight them from an airship. He went with me, and-"

"Hold on," the detective cut in, "aren't you two civilians? Why would you volunteer for that?"

Indigo shifted uncomfortably on the couch, trying her best to smile. "I'm a ready reservist in the Valesian Army. A marksman. Figured they could use my help. He wasn't going to let me go by himself, so..."

This impressed her visibly; she straightened up a little and nodded. "I see. Thank you for your service, then. Please continue."

"Anyway, our airship took friendly fire from someone on campus and… we..." The weight of last night crumpled Indigo forward with anxiety. "We crashed into the Emerald Forest," she mumbled, hands on her head.

While she tried to calm herself back down, a relatively mellow Opher continued the story. "After that, we worked our way out of the forest and flew back to Vale. Simple." He spread out his arms. "As you can see, we're both fine."

"Okay." Nila stared at her Scroll. "Beacon let you leave immediately, then? I kinda thought they would want to check you for Grimm exposure before they sent you back."

While the detective's eyes were busy, a desperate Indigo mouthed _I don't want us to lie to the police_ when Opher looked toward her. He nodded once, but before he could speak, Schwarze returned with the promised coffee. "Here we are!" she sang, displaying the cheerfulness usually reserved for customers in her pub as she set down a tray with four matching mugs, a bowl of sugar cubes, and a bottle of creamer. "I don't know how you two take it, so knock yourselves out with the cream and sugar. Indy, I already gave you a couple of cubes."

Thankful for the distraction, Nila and Indigo instantly fussed with sugar cubes for her coffee, or started sipping, respectively. While Opher took his mug, he didn't drink from it just yet. "We never made it to Beacon. There was a student trial going on at the time, so, you can imagine how many monsters were around. I just wanted to get Indigo back here as quickly as possible."

"I understand. Um… I'll have to check your exposure, then. Sit tight while I get the scanner." Nila set her mug down, got up, and walked out the door without another word, leaving at least two of them in unbridled panic after she closed the door.

"Gods! Fuck! There were dozens of Grimm!" Indigo gasped. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, we're so fucked, we're fucked, gods, no..."

"What do we do?!" Schwarze whined loudly. They clung to each other, shaking with terror.

If only he had any idea what Grimm exposure was, he'd reassure them, but in the absence of such information, Opher prepared to delete Nila from existence in case things went south and stood up with his mug in his hand. Little flicks of wind Dust launched cubes of sugar into the coffee, startling both women. "Sorry," he said, trying his best to find some fear of his own. After watching them suffer in silence for a few seconds, he set the mug down, walked over, and dropped to one knee, pulling them both into a hug. "We will get through this," he whispered.

"How?!"

Even he had to wince – Indigo yelled that almost right into his ear. "I haven't figured it out yet, but..." Knocking at the door forced him to break away. "Breathe. Both of you."

When he opened it, Nila walked through with a curious-looking device in one hand. It looked something like a pistol, but lacked a muzzle; instead, a large rectangular object was stuck to the front. A small screen was placed where the hammer of a handgun would be located. She waited patiently for him to close the door, staring at the backs of Indigo's and Schwarze's heads. Their unease was apparent even from this angle. "I know. This is never easy for us, either, trust me."

"Do you need to check me?" Schwarze asked over her shoulder. One arm was busy hugging her best friend.

"No, ma'am. I'll do Miss Stahl first." Again, she waited patiently as Indigo rose, stiff as a board, and walked over to face her. By some miracle, she had avoided crying, though her face was incredibly red. "Stand there for me."

Opher came over to watch her wave the device around Indigo in seemingly random patterns, starting at her head, then proceeding toward her waist, and finally moving to about the level of her knees. For two minutes, Nila performed this odd dance until the device abruptly emitted a cheerful series of tones. On the screen was a stylized, smiling face. "Is that…?"

"That's a pass, Miss Stahl. All done. No problem." Nila gave her a few solid pats on the shoulder. "Take it easy. I know. I hate getting scanned too. Always scares the hell out of me."

"I..." Exhausted from maintaining her tension, she rested her butt on the back of the sofa and covered her eyes. Schwarze awkwardly rubbed her lower back.

The detective turned away to scan Opher next, performing the same ritual, although it took a bit longer thanks to his taller height. He smiled at a wide-eyed Indigo while she watched. "This doesn't seem so bad."

"Don't jinx it, you idiot," she fired back weakly.

The weird little machine emitted the same happy tones a moment later; Nila stepped back and fiddled with it to turn it completely off. "Green across the board." She recorded this in her Scroll. "Phew! Okay. I think we can all breathe again." Indigo toppled over the back of the couch, ending up with her legs in Schwarze's lap, while Opher stretched and walked back toward his previous seat. "Before I go, though, I would like to know how you two made it back to Vale if you never went back to Beacon."

Her words brought him to a halt, just after he'd gotten his coffee. A tense Indigo sat straight up again. "I'll explain it," he said, walking toward the door and disregarding the unsure outbursts of his two friends. "Shush. You just sit here for a second. I won't be long."

A highly reluctant Nila followed him, eventually, her strides glacial. "Fine." The moment they were alone in the hallway, that hesitance yielded to full-blown nerves. "Now what?" she asked, hands on her hips. "I really don't want to be by myself with you."

"I won't be quite so dramatic this time," he assured her after a sip of coffee. "When I said we flew back here, that's exactly what I meant."

"You didn't re-enter through any airship terminal, because if we had seen those scans I wouldn't be out here right now!"

Another sip of coffee. "Nila… do you think I need an airship to fly?"

Her blood ran cold. Memories and training forced her to rest her hand on her holster, even if she had no hope of actually harming him with a bullet. "Say you have a flight Semblance. You wouldn't have nearly enough Aura to get from Beacon to Vale."

"Did you forget that I have enough Aura to completely defeat a bullet to the skull? Imagine how long my Semblance would last."

Point to Opher. Nila stared off in thought before a grimace appeared as she realized what he was probably going to ask of her next. "Please, man, I can't—if my superiors find out what I'm doing, I'll lose my badge… even worse, if someone figures out I failed to report a false passport, I'll get exiled. My family might too. You can't ask me to keep all of these damn secrets."

The miserable look on her face increased Opher's disgust with the current arrangement of humanity. She and Indigo were desperate not to leave; almost as desperate as refugees seemed to be to get in. The former were saddled with _some_ level of constant fear, but at least they were spared the bullets. Safety was now an exclusive idea, not a universal right – and this fact revolted him. The addition of Grimm exposure to this fetid collection of ideas, something about which he could find no information, nor had ever heard about in his too-expansive lifespan, made him question whether or not this was really the natural equilibrium of Grimm and the sentient species. His face darkened with anger the longer he thought. "This isn't how it used to work," he finally sighed.

Nila – who had taken a few steps back as she watched him grow more upset – muttered a confused "What?"

"Forget it." A reassuring hand came to rest on her shoulder. "Listen, I know I've put you in a tough spot, and I probably shouldn't have, uh, _demonstrated_ my ability so violently, but you kind of backed me into a corner. If everyone knew what I could do… I don't know what the reaction would be. I could tell certain people, but I don't know who to talk to. Do you?"

"Anyone you spoke with would want you ejected from Vale the moment they find out about your passport situation," she replied, brushing his hand away. "It's not a guideline, it's a law. We need records of who's in our Kingdom to keep out the unstable, the criminals. It's about survival, you know that."

Were any of the people he watched die that night criminals? Certainly not the young girl whose head he saw get blown to pieces. One hard breath kept him from getting mad again, barely. He looked on as a nervous Nila played with a silver ring on her right ring finger. While showing off to the kids at Beacon was one thing – it was a far away campus full of individuals that could ostensibly defend themselves – her fear, plus Indigo's and Schwarze's, strengthened his reservations about what sort of panic his power might cause for people in Vale. "You want to keep the Grimm away. I get it. I don't want to attract them either, which is why I prefer to remain quiet." He produced his Scroll. "You gave me your number, here's mine. Two-way street, right?"

While she recorded it, her mind remained on more urgent matters. "What am I supposed to tell the Inspector when or if he asks questions?"

"Scanners break, don't they? Think about a terminal where they have trouble a lot and there we go. Some out of the way little freight complex where the damn things just never function. I'm sure you've got one around here somewhere."

Nila fell still as she looked up, lips parted with disbelief. "Really. That's your grand plan," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "And it still doesn't cover how you got back."

"If you think telling them I flew all the way to Vale without an airship is the best idea, I'd love to see their faces when you try it. Otherwise, we'll figure something out." Another sip of coffee came and went before he explained himself further. "And trust me, I want this to be anything but grand. The more mundane it is, the less anyone else is going to think about it. Both Indigo and I already exist in your system anyway. So we missed an entry scan. It's not like we're unknown quantities."

"Like hell _you_ aren't."

"Point taken, I guess. If anyone gives you pressure, well, you have my number." Opher pointed toward the nearby corner. "I'll be moving into this building sometime over the weekend, so you can come yell at me in person or try to arrest me, if you like."

She glanced over, frowning, and shook her head. "I swear to both gods, if you get me and/or my family exiled, I will come kill you before they throw me in the van."

"You have no idea how happily I would embrace that outcome." He motioned toward Indigo's door. "Come on, they're probably wondering if you took me to jail by now." The moment he opened it and poked his head around, he added, "Sorry about the wait," before ushering Nila in ahead of him. "She had some questions-"

The rest of that statement was lost to the ears of the woman spying on them as he closed the door. Winter Schnee, camped out behind the corner at which Opher had pointed seconds before, walked away from it and back toward her own apartment. The moment she got inside, she grabbed her Scroll from a pocket and flicked it open. An encrypted message was already waiting from Caroline Cordovin, one she chose to respond to with an equally-secure call. "Ma'am."

"Report. He's losing his mind about what we've seen in her latest dataset and wants to know when you'll be able to make contact."

Winter tugged at the collar of her simple white button-up blouse. "Shortly, ma'am. He's moving in this weekend, but I just overheard a _very_ interesting conversation between him and a Vale Police detective. I'll rely the full details in a second, but there may be something we can do to earn his trust in the meantime."

"Get on with it, Captain, I need information and ideas to present when I meet him again."

While she collected her thoughts, she walked over to look out at the Prisma River flowing by through one of the cozy living room's windows. "Perhaps we might solve his little passport problem, ma'am. Then he'd owe us."


	17. Welcome to Beacon

It shocked Blake how easily the Grimm could be replaced by invisible, intangible, but no less dire beasts. No amount of quiet self-reflection seemed able to lessen their presence in her head, even though she'd spent much of the weekend after being released from the infirmary in the meditation hall trying to do just that. She was there now, surrounded by faint birdsong which leaked in from the sunny day outside, plus muttered conversation from the other students taking advantage of a laid-back Dimanch afternoon to try and steady their own nerves. Fortunately, she had a pod to herself and plenty of space therein to try and relax.

Not that it mattered. The Faunus – to her own terrified amazement – regretted having such a long period until their next trial, for it meant that thoughts of survival were replaced by what she had come to label _the_ _Velvet_ _problem_. "I can't just…" she whispered to herself, fighting hard to resist scratching at the itchy bandages which covered wounds on her forehead while her Aura continued repairs. One yellow eye flicked open to glare at the folded-up Scroll in her lap.

Another presence drew her attention to the narrow entryway, where a smiling Yang awaited eye contact and smiled when she got it. Her outfit was altered slightly – gray pants in lieu of the revealing black shorts and fancy waist cape she usually wore. "Hello!" she sang quietly. "Got room for a buddy? The nurse said I should try to let my Aura even out a little while I have some time."

"Of course." She slid over to give the brawler a little more room to adjust the other mat on the floor. Yang copied her seating position – which brought into clear view her abused hands, bandaged such that the wraps went around her individual fingers and all the way up to her wrists. The sight made Blake wince firmly. "How… how are you feeling?"

"A little better. Still hard to grip stuff, but the extra sleep is helping me heal." One measured breath later, Yang closed her eyes and tried to get started with the relaxation process. Even while blind, however, she could detect the tension coming from her friend. "Are _you_ okay over there? You've been in here a lot this weekend."

"I'm sorry about what happened on Fraidich."

Those lilac eyes slid open again. Despite growing worry in her chest, Yang maintained an easy smile. "What do you have to be sorry about?"

Blake maintained her rather immobile posture despite the immense amount of internal squirming which leaked out through her face as a twisted, uneasy expression. "They kept attacking us."

"Come on, Blake, we know you guys are dealing with some sh—stuff. Besides, you had all seven of us to help you out. Well, nine of us when we finally got to Penny and Ciel." Yang's fluffy golden locks shifted as she tilted her head, studying Blake's expression. "We get that you're kind of stuck with it, so don't even worry."

"I guess..." She accepted some of that night's memories back into her head in hopes she might begin to release them, an act which stiffened her posture even more. Most of the images revolved around Ruby's willingness to sacrifice the range advantage of Crescent Rose just so she could keep close to the Faunus and Weiss, a choice which also drew Yang into that frantic combat. "I've never had two bodyguards like you before."

A few giggles left Yang's glossy peach lips. "I know Ruby isn't the best with people, but she has her own way of letting them know she cares. Especially when it comes to fighting the Grimm." The humor began to drain from her face. "She… takes after mom in more than just her looks."

Blake's face twisted in a different way upon hearing those words: sympathetically. "I feel pretty confident in saying your mom would be proud of both of you."

"I hope so." A couple of moments went by in silence; Yang had her eyes covered with a forearm as she resisted her urge to cry. "I'm just glad everyone made it."

"Yes. Everyone." Sadness was a strange-looking outfit on the blonde's frame, one Blake couldn't recall seeing her wear before. A tiny bit of her wondered if Ruby had ever seen her sister this way. She chose to try and start easing them away from the subject with what she hoped would be a lighter topic. "I've been meaning to ask… for a while now, actually. Why do you two have different last names?"

"Huh?" Yang dropped her arm and looked over – her face somewhat ruddier than before – as she tried another smile. "Xiao Long is the family name. Ruby had it too. At least until she learned what mom's name was before she married dad. So she decided to change Xiao Long to Rose in her memory. Boom! Ruby Rose."

"That's-" So much for a lighter topic; Blake found it a struggle to finish her thought for a good second or two, thanks to the subtle clenching of her heart. "That's really thoughtful of her."

"Yeah." Her breaths slowed down as she tried to put her mind back on the path toward calm. "Look, Ruby and I aren't mad at you two about anything. We're a team. We look out for each other. And like I said, we know you're kind of stuck with it. You shouldn't disobey Miss Goodwitch."

"I know, I just-" But now the situation was beginning to inflict physical pain, in a roundabout way. She stared at Yang's bandaged hands again. "Never mind. I'd feel better if I could at least say _something_ to my parents."

"You still can't get through?" When Blake nodded, the blonde – after some slow and painful hand movements – retrieved her own Scroll from a handy belt pouch. "Hell, try mine. I haven't had any trouble talking to dad back on Patch."

"Yes, but Menagerie is below the equator. Coverage is, um, spotty at the best of times. Dad said they were going to try to launch more relay balloons before I left, but..." Still, she wouldn't deny her friend's attempt at kindness and decided to try anyway, gently taking the device from her. "I guess it's worth a shot. Maybe your Scroll will have a better chance." Quiet fell upon them as she copied her parents' number into Yang's contact list, then typed out a message, complete with an explanation for the strange number from which she made contact, then handed Yang's Scroll back to her. "They're probably asleep by now. I'll give it a while. Thank you."

"You bet." After a wink from Yang, both girls assumed the reflection position once more and actually managed to find a shred of peace over the next few minutes.

Then Blake's feline ears began to twitch, their delicate folds picking up a distant noise which leaked in from the open window behind and above them. Muscles in her scalp moved them as much as possible to point them toward the vibrations; as she listened, the phantom sound became a more-distinct rumble with the undertone of rushing air. "What is that noise?" she finally mumbled.

Yang's less-sensitive ears had yet to detect anything. "What noise?" she asked, one eye opened. A few seconds later, however, it too reached them – she opened both eyes and looked up. "Oh, wait, now I hear it."

They weren't the only ones. Students began to filter past their pod en route to the large windows on the west side of the hall so they could see its source. After Blake helped Yang to her feet with a careful grip on her forearms, they joined the gaggle – whose number included a surprisingly by himself Lie Ren. He walked over to join them once noticing their presence. "Hello," Blake greeted. "No Nora?"

Ren nodded a hello before whispering an explanation. "She's at the gym with Pyrrha and Jaune."

"Trying to bulk him up, huh?" Yang stuck her upper body out through the open window, since it seemed like the mystery noise came from the partly-cloudy sky. "I think it's an airship."

Sure enough, the lumbering gray hulk of one passed overhead a moment later, a few hundred feet above the campus on its way toward the airship pads. While this example wasn't nearly as big as the liner which had brought Sienna Khan to Beacon, it was still a larger vessel than the average cargo hauler or shuttle they'd usually see arriving at or leaving the cliffside. It went out of sight behind the dorm buildings as they watched. Shortly after its disappearance, the sound ceased, indicating that the vessel had landed. "Who this could be?" Blake wondered quietly, ears still twitching. Other students nearby uttered much the same question.

"Hey, let's go look!" Yang waved everyone toward the entrance and took the lead once a group started to follow her out. Ren and Blake walked alongside.

After a few minutes of walking and mumbling among themselves, the curious flock of teenagers reached the main walkway and proceeded through the dorm complex. More of their peers were poked out windows to see what the fuss was about, including Ruby and Weiss. "Hey, what's going on?" the former yelled down at her sister.

She came to a halt, as did Ren and Blake, though the rest of the group around them pressed on. "Dunno, wanna come with us and see?" she asked with a shrug.

"Um..." Her silver eyes went to the heiress. "Will you be cool for a minute?"

Weiss could only glare. "You're not my babysitter. I can get around just fine. Go." She intercepted Ruby's attempted hug with her right hand. "Do not."

"Okay, okay, fine, I'll be back in a flash! Go lie down! Rest your leg!"

Their three friends lost interest as soon as the girls vanished from the window and moved to catch up with the rest of the students. Ruby joined them just as they passed the large statue in the circular courtyard, panting and sweating from her run. "I see the princess is in a fine mood," Yang joked.

"Look, you'd be grumpy too if you could hardly walk." She checked her makeup with her Scroll's mirror. "Hey, Ren! It's weird seeing you without Nora. They're still at the gym?" His nod earned a smile. "I hope they're not working Jaune too hard, isn't he still sore?"

"Perhaps they're just using him to spot?" he offered gently.

"Pffff, that's what Yang makes me do too." The sisters exchanged a wry look before the presence of the airship ahead got their full attention. Scattered along the walkway, heading toward them, were several people. At first glance, they seemed to be roughly the same age as the Beacon students, and all of them carried bags or luggage of some variety. Many of the bright-eyed, smiling kids were on Scroll calls as they looked around. "Hold on. Are they—I thought they weren't coming until tomorrow?"

Blake was less interested about the why than in a particular who. Her eyes were stuck to a somewhat flat-chested girl with faded chocolate skin, reddish-brown hair and large, oval smoky blue eyes. Those locks were slicked back into a high ponytail which ended in a fat curl around hip-level – it looked remarkably like a lizard's tail. Long, thin eyebrows were knitted with anticipation as she looked around, an act that brought dark splotches on her cheeks and forehead into better view. These markings resembled gigantic freckles. She wore a single-piece, knee-length gray dress with long sleeves and a high collar, as well as a pair of shiny brown boots. Two large, dark green duffel bags were in her hands. They only made eye contact a few seconds later, once the other students had moved aside.

"Uh, Blakey?" Yang said, nothing the intensity of her stare.

The new girl's mouth unfurled into a huge smile. She ran to cover the distance, pushing past everyone and coming to a halt right in front of the giddy cat Faunus and dropping her bags. "Blake!"

"Ilia!" They snatched each other up in a joyful hug, giggling and bouncing around, while a highly amused Ruby and Yang looked on. It only stopped when Ilia grabbed a wound hidden by her clothing, caused a gasp, then broke away and stepped back with worry. "I'm okay. We had a field trial a little over two days ago."

"Explains the bandages," she said through a frown, looking at the one on Blake's forehead. Her eyes went to Yang's hands as well. "Is this your team?"

"Kinda!" Ruby said, pointing to herself and her grinning sister. "Come on, Blake, introduce us!"

"Oh, yes, right." She led Ilia over to them, beaming like the early autumn sun above. "This is Ilia Amitola, my best friend from Menagerie-"

"Your only friend from Menagerie," she interjected, smirking like mad.

Blake's hands went to her hips. "Hush, you. We grew up together. A bunch of her relatives are soldiers in our militia, or work for the city of Kuo Kuana, so our families have known each other for a while. And since we're both only children, well..." Her posture slumped a bit so the ever-so-slightly shorter Ilia could put an arm around her shoulder. "I guess our parents wanted to make sure we had at least _someone_ our age around while we were little." She reciprocated the shoulder hug before introducing them to Ilia. "This is Ruby, my team leader, Yang, her older sister, and Lie Ren, a friend from a different team."

After exchanging hellos or waves, they made room for the rest of the students to walk toward the main part of campus, but chose to linger for a moment near the airship pads. Yang lost control of her grin while watching just how giddy the usually-reserved Blake had become. "This is so cute," she mumbled to Ruby.

"Isn't it?" she giggled. Ren also nodded his approval. "So Ilia, which school did you come from?"

"Haven. Miss Khan decided to break up our arrivals so it wouldn't be as much of a strain on the staff here. I wanted to be on the first airship so I could come see this ridiculous girl." She elbowed Blake with a grin. "What have you been up to?"

The cat Faunus lost her happy momentum as they started to walk. One of Ilia's bags was in her left hand. "Lots of fighting. Classes just started. Some… other stuff."

"Oooo, yeah. Miss Khan put us through the wringer too. There was a ceremony just before I left for the people we lost."

All five of them were more sullen now. Ruby and Yang crossed their arms in a prayer for the fallen, while Ren offered her a pat on the shoulder. Blake leaned over to whisper, "Was your ceremony as weird for you as ours was for me?"

Ilia nodded once and muttered back, "You have no idea." She smiled at the sisters' concerned looks. "My team made it through, don't worry. Too bad we had to break up for this. Miss Khan wanted them to stay behind."

"Awwwwww, that sucks." Yang's eyes rolled in thought. "Wait, then, are you here by yourself?"

The instant Ilia nodded, Blake leaned forward and spoke to Ruby. "Can she join our team?"

Her silver eyes lit up with glee. "Absolutely! Any friend of yours is a friend of ours! I'm not exactly sure where she's going to sleep, but, you know, we'll work that out I guess. It's fine."

Ilia busted out laughing at the exchange. "I'd love to, but I've already got a new team lined up. Sorry." She allowed Blake a moment to groan with disappointment. "Hey, at least we're on the same continent again." When she noticed Ruby's eyes still on her, she tilted her head. "What's up?"

"Are you…?" She scratched at her black and red locks. "I mean, I don't see ears or antlers or – maybe there's a tail under your dress? See, this is why I don't assume stuff, I feel so silly..."

This drew another laugh. "Yes, I'm a Faunus, too." Her skin color abruptly changed from brown to the same shade of white as the stone walkway upon which they traveled, while the dark spots on her face became gray. "Blake has feline traits, but mine are reptilian." Just as abruptly, her complexion returned to normal.

"That is so fucking cool!" a starry-eyed Yang said loudly. Beside her, Ruby could only emit an amazed squeal. Their positive reaction caused the splotches on Ilia's face to turn pink with embarrassment as she looked away, smiling. "Hold on, does she blush through her spots? Gods. Adorable as hell," the blonde added.

"Oh, stop it." Upon turning to Blake, however, she found an entertained grin waiting. "And don't you start. Look, I gotta go find my team. Catch you guys for dinner later?"

"Of course! Oh, here's my new Scroll number before you go." Once Ilia had it, she gave back her other bag. "Or, actually, we could go with you. Help you find your way."

"Nah, it's all right, I don't want to keep you guys. Besides, my butt hurts from sitting in that thing all day and I really need to run some blood back into my legs before I take a nap." She nodded back at the airship, which was still disgorging passengers. "I'll see you later after I get settled in, I promise."

"Hee hee hee, she said butt too."

"Gods help me, Weiss is right, you are actually seven years old." Ruby took up saying goodbye, waving both arms frantically overhead as their new classmate walked off. "Bye, Ilia! Nice to meet you! Welcome to Beacon!"

Ilia walked backwards a few steps to smile and say, "Thanks! See you around!" before turning forward and jogging away with a few more of the new arrivals around her. She smirked wildly at the gentle teasing she heard Blake get from the two sisters as she departed. With distance, her blush faded, as did her smile, both of which were replaced by a much more business-like expression. Her hair bounced with each step. "Let's see… building four, room eight," she mumbled, recalling her destination. "Building four..." By the time she made it to that closed door, sweat glittered on every inch of her exposed skin. Breathing hard, she dropped her bags on the floor, knocked exactly five times, then stepped back to wait. A few seconds later, it opened to reveal Ciel. They regarded each other in silence.

"You're a day early," Ciel stated quietly. She yielded so Ilia and her luggage could come inside, then shut the door once it was clear. "I'll warn you now, you're about to get a hug."

"A what?" Ilia looked up just in time to see Penny emerge from the closet, smiling brightly, arms outstretched, and walking toward her with _purpose_. "Uh..."

"Our new friend!" The android embraced her firmly. "Welcome!"

Like all of Penny's cuddle targets, Ilia squirmed in her powerful grasp. "I… uh, hello?" she gasped after a while. "Please. I think my ribs are cracking."

"Nonsense, my Aura sensors would pick that up. Also, you'd be screaming in pain." Regardless, she released her hug and stood with Ciel, smiling all the way. "Please take whichever bed you like. I don't actually sleep."

"I know." Ilia regarded Penny with amazement after placing her bags aside and slipping out of her boots. "You look _so…_ I don't know… human? Lifelike? You've even got body heat… sorry. I don't mean to be insensitive."

"Don't worry, I have not been programmed to feel insulted!" No reaction from Ilia caused Penny to look over at her partner. "I don't think the joke worked."

"Maybe it just wasn't very funny." Tired of the small talk, Ciel plopped down on a bed and gazed at the new arrival. "So, how much of a briefing do you need from us?" she asked, watching Ilia fall, face-first, onto the bed opposite and lie there for a moment.

"I don't know, Miss Khan told me a hell of a lot over the past forty days." After a bit, she rolled over onto her back so she could meet their curious gazes. "Do you need anything from _me_?"

Ciel and Penny shared another glance before the former spoke up. "Why did you volunteer for this? The Faunus aren't as strict about exposure limits as human Kingdoms are. You could have gone home once you were done with school."

At this, Ilia only shrugged. "Miss Khan needed someone sneaky. Hard to get much sneakier than I am."

"That isn't what I'm asking," the punctual girl said, folding her arms.

Forced upright by rising anger in her chest, Ilia hugged her knees tightly. "My parents have no idea what they've thrown me into. I'm sure Blake's parents don't either. This system… pardon my language, but it's _so_ incredibly fucked up. When Miss Khan told me how much worse the guidelines have gotten since she took over at Haven..." She couldn't help but shake her head. "Why does Ozpin have this much power over the other schools?"

"That's the way the system was built. Beacon is the first among equals. Whoever its Headmaster is sets the agenda, and their rules have been awful for years, from what I've heard." Ciel doffed her beret. "General Ironwood is fighting back with Penny's help." She snorted when the android issued a happy wave. "And now Miss Khan's, too. You're taking a huge risk. I want to know why."

"Honestly, it's kind of selfish." Those smoky blue eyes narrowed fiercely. "I've got to help Blake get out of this." Silence caused her to look at them. "And if taking down the whole thing is how that happens, then I'm happy to be a wrecking ball."

Penny leaned over to mutter to her partner. "She's very intense."

"Good. We'll need it." Ciel sneaked a glance at her watch. "You _cannot_ mention any of this to her, understand? Not yet. We're not in a position to involve the Faunus' leadership."

"I know." With shaky fingers, she slicked back her hair. "Even if I don't like the idea of keeping her in the dark… I know. What is it with humans and keeping secrets? You're even rubbing off on Miss Khan." After allowing herself a moment of misery, she switched to a different subject. "Do I call you Corporal, or what?"

This drew another few snorts from Ciel's lips. "No way, first-name basis only. Our point of contact in Vale is a Regular Army Captain, so just call her by rank if you need to talk to her. Same for the Colonel."

"Oh, and I'll handle encryption for our communications with everyone!" Penny assured her cheerfully, rubbing her hands together. "This is so exciting!"

Ilia fell back onto her bed, arms and legs splayed, staring at the bunk above. "Hopefully not exciting enough to get us all killed."

* * *

Much of Raven's flock was taking advantage of the cloudy conditions; members of her tribe were scattered all over the large campsite, doing laundry, airing out bedding, or embroiled in a million other domestic tasks. Emerald was occupied by something different: watching the bait children play. These kids were housed in a large, comfortable tent near the crimson big top – a spot where they wouldn't have much of a chance to interact with kids born of the tribe members. Eight little ones were present currently, engaged in a game of tag, running around in circles and laughing merrily. Two older women kept an eye on them – one of these had shining purple hair that fell in waves down her back and sad green eyes.

"Emmy, Emmy!" one of the boys said, running up to her. "Come play with us!"

Grinning, she bent down to ruffle his white hair. "I'm not fast enough to keep up with you! You'd make me look pretty silly." She resisted when he tugged at her left hand. "No, Basil, go on. Before your sister gets jealous of me again."

"Awwww..." His disappointment was short-lived, however, as another boy ran by and tagged him, initiating a fresh chase.

While watching them, Emerald backed up closer to the tent flap and crossed her arms. When the whole gaggle came to a halt and clustered together, staring, she looked over her shoulder and found Cinder looming silently in the entrance, clad in her favored red dress and brandishing a full rainbow of Dust inserts thereupon. She instantly snapped to attention. "Ma'am?"

"Your presence is required by Lady Branwen," she stated evenly, staring at her lackey with a single, vacant yellow eye.

"Um, yes ma'am." After fussing with the strange white and black criss-cross halter top that framed her full bust, as well as some adjustment of the olive-colored tube top which kept the front of said chest covered, she followed Cinder out into the warm air and fell in alongside. Her mistress said nothing as they threaded their way along the sand streets and around the other people using them to move through the complex. "Am I-"

"Do _not_ interact with the bait," Cinder stated, those flat words somehow still laden with high-velocity displeasure. "I will not warn you again. If you're that interested in children, I'm sure one of our own young men will be happy to help you conceive one."

The thief swallowed hard, left blushing by her monotone bluntness. "Yes ma'am. I'm sorry." In search of comfort, she gripped the three-tiered silver armband which embraced her left bicep. "May I ask why I'm wanted in the-"

Cinder's face twitched with disdain. "Lady Branwen will tell you herself."

Silence dominated the remainder of their short trip. Upon arriving at Raven's tent, Emerald saw the mother bird herself seated at the low oaken table. Vernal sat on her left, leaned on the top, scratching idly at the large tattoo of a raven bursting upward from a clutch of lilies emblazoned across her left upper arm. While the thief took a seat in front of her leader, Cinder chose to stand nearby with her hands clasped behind her back. "Good, finally," Raven greeted. A second later, her brow crinkled with annoyance. "Why isn't your Scroll on? I sent Cinder out to look for you five minutes ago. Unless..." That annoyance became mild anger. "Were you with the-"

"Yes, ma'am, and I'm sorry. Miss Cinder already chewed me out about it," she admitted, nervously stroking one of the two long locks of minty green hair which came from the back of her skull.

"Hmm." One breath later, a reasonable facsimile of calm returned to Raven's pale face. "Forget it. I have something important for you to do." She took a folder from Vernal and thumbed through its contents – something within it caused her brow to crease with unease. "Your special talents are required out east."

Emerald straightened up with surprise, red eyes widening. "Out… out east, ma'am?"

"Yeah. Lady Grace asked if I could let her borrow you for a delicate project. I'm not going to tell my sister no, so you're about to take a little trip." Raven snapped the folder closed and set it down.

"Like, Vale, ma'am?" she asked, still hung up on the destination more than the nature of the task. "I'd never get in."

"Close, but not quite." Raven slid the folder across to her nervous underling. "Leave that there for the moment. Right now, I want you to go back to your tent and pack a bag. Don't worry about food, don't worry about not having warm clothes, just pack for three weeks, maybe a month, and bring every bit of your combat gear. Understand? Do it now, then come back here."

Emerald stood up and nodded once. "As you wish, ma'am," she replied, leaving the tent hastily. Outside, however, she lost her proper demeanor in favor of confusion. "What is happening right now?" she mumbled lowly, darting through the tents to reach her own dwelling near the campsite's gate. Her pace was such that she nearly fell through the eggshell-colored flap, and so she ended up stumbling all the way to the huge, dark wood steamer trunk which sucked up most of the space inside at the rear. After catching her breath, she grabbed a soft black bag, opened the trunk, and started to figure out what kind of wardrobe to bring with her to the forests of eastern Sanus.

Not sixty seconds later, a curious Mercury poked his silver head in. "I have never seen you prance anywhere that fast in my life."

His comment startled Emerald into, first, a squeak, then into bonking her head off the interior of the trunk lid as she straightened up. Rubbing her skull, she glared at his amusement. "First, fuck you. Second, I'm in a hurry."

"Gee, I never would have noticed, what with you cramming underwear into your bug-out bag hand over fist." He invited himself into her tent and watched the frantic process unfold. "What the hell are you even doing?"

"I'm packing for a trip, you moron, what does it look like?" Much more care was taken with opening the polished stone case that held her twin revolvers, whose olive-colored protective metal treatment gleamed despite the paucity of light. Once satisfied with their condition, she set the case down and started filling a second black bag with every bit of ammunition in her tent, plus a few more garments. So equipped, she shut the trunk, strapped her twin holsters onto her waist, and walked out with her luggage and the weapon case, shoving past Mercury to get there.

"What kind of trip?" he asked, following her down the dusty path.

"I don't know! And stop following me!" she chided over her shoulder. He caught up to walk alongside instead. "That's absolutely not what I wanted you to do and you know it."

"But at least I ain't following you anymore."

Her ruby eyes became displeased slits. "Why I'm not allowed to hit you over the head with tent supports is completely beyond me."

He winked at her. "Please, you know what Raven thinks about public displays of affection." Once he noticed their apparent destination, however, Mercury lost a bit of his snark. "Oh, hell, this _is_ an order from the big boss, huh?"

Emerald stomped lightly up the wooden steps to access the big top's haphazard porch. "Yes, and you're not invited in."

"Ah, hell. I'm gonna miss you, Emmy. See you when you get back?"

Trying to gauge whether or not he was actually being serious stayed her feet for a moment. They stared at each other until she finally rolled her eyes and turned away. "Unfortunately." She walked into a low conversation between Raven and Vernal – the quiet statue masquerading as Cinder Fall hadn't moved from the position where Emerald left her – and set her luggage near the entrance flap, assuming a polite, silent stance while she waited to be addressed.

"There are two fresh exiles I've had my eye on for a few nights now," Vernal said, ignoring the thief for now. "Camped out on the edge of the exclusion zone. I think they're a couple. They've done pretty well about keeping calm. Might be worth talking to."

"We'll see if they're still alive tonight." Raven eyed Emerald and her belongings for a moment in silence. "Good to go?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Fine. Take that folder with you." While Emerald packed it up in a bag, Raven got to her feet, snatched her weapon sheath off the floor, and dialed the rotary mechanism to its crimson chamber. "Vernal, send the message." While she obeyed, Raven's attention went to the thief again. "You will treat my sisters as you treat me. Do what they ask of you when they ask it. If you have questions they won't answer, then you don't need them answered. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." Emerald watched as the Maiden executed a twirling slash with her red saber and tore open a portal. "I've never actually been through one of these before, is there anything I should worry about?" she asked while picking up her luggage.

"It's not so bad," Vernal reassured her. "There's a weird noise, but nothing loud. Oh, and the gap between messes with your balance. Stand perfectly still and you'll be just fine."

"Uh, okay." On uneasy steps, she approached the rotating wound, walking past Raven to get there. "Wish me luck, I guess."

"Luck? You've got our training." Raven gently shoved her into the portal when she hesitated.

What she discovered within was a swirling blood-red nightmare of mottled light and shadow, whose atmosphere was saturated by what sounded like the whispers of millions of people coming from every direction. While Emerald was still standing – on what she had no idea – her inner ears told her she was falling at terminal velocity. Every ounce of restraint was necessary to keep herself from flinging her luggage away and shrieking at the top of her lungs. Five seconds later, the ordeal came to an end – an unseen force punted her forward, out of the wormhole's other end, and into a dark space full of musty air. Green lights on the edge of a silver path switched on in response to her presence. Two steps later, she dropped her cargo roughly on the floor and hunched over to catch her breath.

"First trip?"

Emerald's red eyes snapped up to see a titanic silhouette off the left side of the path, which stepped into the green glow and revealed herself as Olivine, decked out in her fully-armored blue dress but lacking her sword. "Yeah, it was. Who are you?" she said up to the immense warrior.

"You can call me Olivine. My sister Amber asked for you." The giant waited as Emerald, still doubled over, struggled to fully gain control of her breath. "Damn, how much did you bring?"

"Miss Branwen said to pack for a month, so..." she gasped. At last she managed to straighten up. "Miss Duprix, then. I've heard of you. What in the hell is in those portals? There were whispers-"

"Trust me, don't ask." Olivine picked up the weapons case and waited for Emerald to retrieve her other bags before walking toward the elevator doors some distance away in the darkness. More lights flickered to life as she drew closer. "You all right back there?"

"I think I'm okay." She caught up with the Maiden after some sluggish walking. "But I would like some idea of why I just traveled thousands of kilometers. Erm, please."

The giant met her consternation with a bitter smile. "Amber and I are busy with something important. You're gonna help us solve a different problem. Did you get a packet of info from Raven?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." Figuring out which bag it was in and getting it out took Emerald a moment. Once she opened it, she found two pictures clipped to a small stack of documents. These images were of Ruby and Yang. "I'm gonna guess these are targets."

"In the long term." She tapped a button as Emerald read the papers. "Ruby Rose is our biggest issue, but she's always around her sister. You might need to fuck with both their heads to get this done."

"Ohhhhh, it's a mental hit." The thief continued to shuffle through the papers, though the chime which signaled the arrival of the elevator almost spooked her into dropping them. "Damn! Ugh. What's my cover?"

"You're Beacon Academy's newest student! Congratulations!" Olivine expected the surprise she saw on Emerald's face and responded with a toothy smile as they stepped into the elevator. "A lot of new arrivals are going to show up over the next couple of days, you'll blend right in. Oh, and don't worry, it's been arranged so you'll end up solo." The long trip skyward into the sub-basements of Beacon Tower began.

Emerald took the opportunity to better examine the photos. "This blonde girl… she looks familiar." One particular lock of hair on top of Yang's head that refused to lie flat caught her eye – it was a trait Raven also shared. Even their noses and chins struck her as similar. "Huh, she looks a lot like Miss-" Olivine's silent gaze shut her up.

"I figured you'd be too smart not to notice," she admitted at length. She could see the question forming in those red eyes and intercepted it before the words dislodged themselves from Emerald's lungs. "The kid is what's left of Raven's life before she founded the tribe. We're not necessarily after her, but do what you have to do."

Emerald gazed at the blonde's face a while longer. "I understand."

"Good. By the way, Amber wanted to thank you for letting her use your tent when she was out there last time."

Her red eyes went up. "Oh, she's more than welcome. I liked having _intelligent_ company for once." The length of their trip began to cause her some concern; she glanced around, nudging one foot against one of her bags. "I didn't think we'd be in here this long."

"We're going all the way-" The car suddenly lurched to a halt and the doors slid open, revealing Ozpin's office. "-to the top."

The Headmaster, seated and in the middle of a Scroll conversation, covered the device's microphone with a hand. "Aha, there she is. Just leave your bags by the doors for now, please, and do come in. I'll be with you in a moment." His attention went back to his Scroll. "Beg pardon, Your Majesty, visitors have walked in." A moment passed. "Of course. I'll be in touch." He hung up just as a visibly confused Emerald came to a halt before him. "Miss Sustrai. I've heard good things about you from Lady Branwen."

Emerald, face scrunched with thought, was much too busy trying to deduce the relationship between Raven's so-called sisters and the Headmaster of a combat Academy – of _the_ combat Academy – to answer right away. "Th-thank you?" she finally said. "Miss Duprix, I'm a little confused."

Olivine spoke to Ozpin instead. "She's not in the loop."

"Then she can report directly to you for the time being." He slid a small packet across his desk toward the thief and did not speak again until she collected it. "This is your ID kit so you can satisfy the automatic scanner system. And while Lady Branwen praises your talent, I hear the authorities in Vacuo took a much dimmer view. Do not saunter around my campus collecting unauthorized souvenirs."

Like the crotchety old professor could challenge her even if she did; despite this thought, she kept her smirk subtle because it might agitate Olivine – someone whom appeared quite capable of beating her ass. "Aw, really? Fine. I'll behave."

"See to it that you do." The conversation ended as Ozpin brought up his computer screen to attend to some other matters. "Good day."

"Come on, I'll show you where the dorms are." Olivine waved her back to the elevator, helping her wrangle her luggage once they arrived. After they were on the way down, she added, "Ozpin helps us do what needs to be done. That's all."

This non-answer only led to further questions. "So, what, he's… a friend? Why would he be friends with Miss Branwen, she's an-"

"You worry too much, Emerald. Just help us with this and you'll be on your way home with pockets full of something shiny."

"Nnnh." To avoid pissing off a woman whose arms seemed almost as big around as her thighs, Emerald obeyed, directing her thoughts to the mission at hand. "What do you want me to trick this girl into, exactly?"

"Hmm..." Olivine tapped her chin in thought. "Maybe attacking another student? Fuck, I dunno. We'll figure something out after you get unpacked." She watched the thief continue to file through the dossier until something within it stopped her. "What?"

"Who's this guy?" she asked while pointing at Opher's picture, clipped to one of the last pages.

"Oh." As with every other time she'd laid eyes on his face, Olivine's stomach began to tug itself into subtle knots. "He's the other problem. We might need you for him too."

* * *

Indigo stared out the windows of Opher's new living room, face drawn tight with worry. "I don't like any part of this," she said to Schwarze, who stood at her left side, also ignoring the view of Vale's squat, blocky skyline. Both of them were blank-faced with their arms crossed. "I shouldn't have..."

"We still have our leverage, and I still have my name." Schwarze tossed her fancy braid, tried to smile, and failed. "Speaking of leverage, he must have something over that detective. I wonder what?"

A question she also shared, but 48 hours on, Indigo still lacked the courage to ask Opher directly. Her ochre eyes dimmed with worry. "He did show her what he can do."

"You know that's not what I mean. Did you see the way she looked at him when she came into your apartment? Something else is going on between them."

"Yeah." She stepped away from the view and cast her gaze at his somewhat more sparsely furnished living space, at least relative to her own unit. Only one blue leather sofa existed for them to sit on, which she did, with Schwarze following her lead. "Something big enough to keep her mouth shut at least this long." Moments passed in silence as she toyed awkwardly with her gold and silver ankle skirt. "I can't sit on this shit anymore, we've gotta-"

"Why, is my new couch that bad?" Opher said, walking inside and distracted by his Scroll. Once he shut the front door and made eye contact, however, he knew something was wrong. "We're not talking about my couch, are we." He came to occupy one end of it while the two women sat on the other, eyeballing him. "Go on, let's hear it."

A narrow-eyed Indigo got right to the point. "I wanna know what happened when that detective checked your passport. _Something_ clearly did, because she was scared to death to see you Samedi morning."

His face went blank. It took him about five seconds to think of a way to contort the facts into a neat little semi-truth to get past her question smoothly. What he said next came out with all the gravitas of someone ordering food at a restaurant, with an added shrug thrown in to reinforce how little he thought of it. "I got shot. Actually, it was pretty funny."

The color drained from their faces. " _What did you say_?" Schwarze blurted out.

"Look, that Ward lady is really skittish. I was trying to prove my passport was real to her, and apparently I did something she didn't like." Opher raised up his camouflaged hat and pointed at his head. "Reaching for my bag set her off. She plunks me right in the noggin. My Semblance soaked up the shot, so, no real harm done. Hoo boy, though, you should have seen the look on her face." Their continued open-mouthed horror caused him to sigh. "I am _fine_. Look at me." He paused to motion at himself. "Do I seem hurt?"

"N-no?" a badly shaken Indigo finally replied, fists clenched so tightly her dark knuckles turned white.

Her pale friend seemed to have forgotten what breathing was, so he addressed her next, waving his partially-tattooed hand. "Schwarze. Hi. You're turning blue."

"She shot you!" was her sharp, exhaled response.

"Uh huh. Why do you think she went along with our plan? I imagine things wouldn't go well for her if I reported it to the department." Opher slid over to sit directly next to them. "Anyway, it freaked her out pretty bad. I guess she's never seen a Semblance like mine before."

"But..." Indigo, so enthralled by nervously fiddling with her long ponytail that she ended up with much of it wrapped around her left wrist. "It's..."

"Fine." He doffed his hat and ruffled his short brown hair. "See? I didn't exactly want to hold it over her like this, but I guess it came in handy." On went his hat again.

Schwarze breathed in a little peace. "I suspect the police don't encounter Semblances much at all to begin with. What few users there are end up in Academies or the Army, and even ex-soldiers like us don't generally use them in public. We don't have reason to."

"Huh." Opher glanced at his TV – which projected a screen notably smaller than Indigo's – where an ad for Beacon happened to be playing. "Fuck, that reminds me. I might need a day off tomorrow to go talk to those assholes." A glance at his boss to ask one question resulted in a different inquiry when he saw her continued distress. "What?"

After freeing her wrist from the shackle of blue hair in which it was trapped, Indigo crossed her arms with a frown. "If she shot you, why didn't we hear it? We were right next door."

"Didn't you see her holster? It was the kind meant to hold suppressed weapons. And there were three brick walls between them and us."

While she accepted this explanation, Indigo's face still indicated some level of displeasure. "I'd have reported her ass anyway. What the hell? Anyone else and they'd be dead." Her attention fell upon Opher's indifference. "And, as usual, you don't care. Fucking hell, why did you end up looking for Dust after you left the Regular Army? You'd make a hell of a meditation instructor."

"I guess it does take a lot to make me really mad, but that job would require a level of patience I likely don't possess," he quipped while changing the TV channel. "I was serious about the day off, by the way. Not sure why Beacon only wants to see me, but whatever."

All Indigo could do was shrug. "Yeah, I don't know why they were fine with a phone call for me, but not for you."

"I must admit, it was quite interesting to listen to Glynda apologize for a solid hour," Schwarze added, adjusting the way her braided locks fell across her blue collared blouse. "She doesn't seem like the submissive type."

"Ha! Yeah." Thinking about mundane business proved to be quite a relief, so she stuck with it. "Do you think they'd mind if you waited to go until after closing? I heard big airships were out there earlier. The kids from Haven must be showing up. I'd bet my ass they'll want us for courier work at the very least."

"Fine with me. My first obligation is to you anyway." Abrupt silence caused him to look over, where his eyes met their mildly surprised – and slightly red – faces. "What? It's true. You guys are my only friends and… honestly, I don't really care what Beacon thinks."

"I appreciate your loyalty, I guess, but don't get your ass in trouble," Indigo huffed at length before her grumpiness softened. "Hey… uh… what about the other thing?"

Schwarze's turn to be sore arrived. She crossed her arms firmly. "The other thing we shouldn't be sitting on? The one we should tell everyone who'll listen?" she asked while looking over at Opher.

Who only rolled his eyes. "Why are you so keen to make me famous?" For once, Opher lost his cool and looked away, allowing some truth to slip out. "I don't understand why nobody else seems to know. I don't like it." Continued, silent thought only reinforced his unease. It was Carmine herself that had taught him about Remnant's retort, something she had apparently picked up from somewhere beyond Solitas, though she never mentioned exactly where. Given her disposition and considerable power, there was no way she'd keep it quiet, but the population still seemed blind. She'd never carry such knowledge to her grave.

Willingly.

Even the mere shadow of foul play twisted his stomach into an awful, frigid knot, feelings which fed on his lack of knowledge surrounding her death and the events which came shortly after. A bigger question erupted forth in his head: his power remained, and had grown with time, but where the hell had _her_ gift gone? Her descendants should have been the kings and queens of the entire planet. Perhaps they were – he began to entertain the idea of breaking into the palace to check for lost magic.

This whole silent process resulted in a deeply unhappy look which neither Indigo nor Schwarze liked. "Whoa, uh, what's the problem?" the former asked, leaning forward to get a better view.

"Listen, I know you're eager to help everyone, but… something really bothers me about this. I can't explain why." Opher paused to slump back against the sofa. "I'm not worried about me, but you two didn't ask for this. I want to make sure everything is all right before we start shouting about this shit from the rooftops."

"What would be the problem? It's all good news!"

Opher moved the brim of his hat to look over at Schwarze. "Then why doesn't everyone already know it?"

"Because-" she began, hand raised, then fell still as no answer came. Not even looking at Indigo helped. "I… I'm not sure."

"Exactly. Neither am I." He changed the channel again. "So, for now, let's just play it cool. Besides, like I said, I imagine the Beacon staff is going to bring it up."

"Why are you so sure of that?"

Those dull green eyes went to his boss. "Because the girl I knocked out had something shiny on her sweater. Pretty sure it was a camera lens." Having had his fill of the subject, Opher moved on. "We'll deal with it as it comes to us. Anyway, apparently signing a rent contract makes me eligible for a bunch of extra Lien from the Crown now? Something about permanent residency."

"Oh, yeah, once you actually live here, the Queen takes care of a whole lot of shit." She rubbed her neck awkwardly. "Um… sorry about the whole minimum wage thing. I didn't know if you were gonna stay and I didn't want to sink a lot of money into you if you didn't. That's why I sent you to that innkeeper, I knew he wouldn't charge you much if you did hang around."

"Please," he snorted, "between him and the free food from Schwarze, I probably could have gotten by on half the wage you gave me. Which, by the way, is not an invitation to cut my pay." He grinned at the willowy woman's snickering. "Huh. I guess I actually need to buy groceries now. And curtains."

Schwarze couldn't contain her happy clapping. "I'll help you decorate!" she said, bouncing in her seat. "I'm the one who did Indy's unit! Thankfully. Knowing her taste in skirts, I'd hate to see what she would have done to it on her own."

"Fuck you, woman, my apartment would have looked awesome!"

He had to let himself laugh at this for a minute before raising up to stop whatever argument might come next. "You know what? I kinda want to see what you'd pick out for me. I don't mind a little color." Opher got to his feet and stretched obnoxiously. "Y'all get the hell out so I can take inventory of what I need to go buy. Then maybe we can go shopping together later. If you haven't strangled each other yet."

Glad for the distraction, Indigo bore a wildly competitive grin on her face as she stood up. "Race you to the department store, boobs."

"Boobs?!" Schwarze snapped as they walked toward the door to leave. "You're just jealous you don't have any, shorty!"

"Shorty? Don't you mean 'easy to throw around in-'"

"You two kids have fun," Opher said, shutting the door behind them as they continued to bicker all the way down the hall. The moment the knob clicked, his amusement fled. "Fuck. Am I ready for this shit again?" he sighed, rubbing at his eyes. He barely reached his open bathroom door before knocking caused him to turn back. Assuming that Indigo or Schwarze had forgotten something, he shuffled back to it and activated the hallway camera to prepare a suitable tease. He found neither. Instead, a woman with snow-white hair, dressed in a wing-collar white blouse and a black, knee-length skirt, awaited him. Around her neck was a white ribbon choker, studded with rainbow crystals across her throat. While her hairstyle wasn't the same – she had it completely down – he recalled her rather stern expression and pallid complexion as belonging to the Diamond Dust stranger from some days ago. "The hell..."

After he opened the door, she greeted him with the most suspicious "Good afternoon," he'd heard in a while, before quickly adding, "I saw I had a new neighbor and I thought I'd say hello. May I?"

His first impression: _s_ _he's gotta be a cop or something._ More curious about her true nature than interested in trying to act friendly, Opher let her in after thinking about it for a moment. "You came into the shop. Didn't know you lived here."

"I only recently moved in myself." Winter, out of sheer habit, clasped her hands behind her back as she walked slowly around his living room, modest black heels clacking gently on the hard floor. "My name is Winter."

"Opher." The more he looked at her, the harder it was for him to shake the feeling that she resembled the snow-headed girl at Beacon. "Do you have a sister?"

Winter's heart skipped a beat. She knew he'd been to the Academy – and thanks to Penny, she also knew he'd helped Weiss at least twice in combat situations. Her expression failed to change when she looked back at him. "I don't."

 _Like hell_. He walked past her toward the kitchen, intending to figure out what to stock his fridge with to keep up the impression that he actually needed to eat instead of doing it out of habit. "Huh. There's a girl I've met at Beacon a few times who I'd swear is your sister," he said on the way by. "I guess not."

"Perhaps I just have one of those faces," Winter replied smoothly, holding her ground as he disappeared. "How long have you been in Vale?"

"Oh, a little over three months now, I guess," he called back. Eventually, he appeared with a bottle of water in his left hand, now set on turning the screws in order to figure out what was truly going on as he moved toward the couch. "I'd offer you one of these if I had any more." She only shrugged at this. "Yeah, not exactly stocked up since I literally just moved in. You know, it's really weird. That girl – a Schnee, no less – looks so much like you. I wonder if her family knows how much punishment she's taking." He didn't need eye contact to detect the sudden tension.

"I'm sure she knows what she signed up for," was her almost-frigid reply; by now, Winter had to vent her worry with pacing behind his couch. Only for a few seconds, however, before she caught herself and stopped where he could look over and see her easily. Small talk to veer them away from this touchy subject escaped her agile mind when Opher finally did gaze her way.

His next words were as silky as daggers to the ribs, though his expression never shifted from idle disinterest. "She didn't look so good when I saw her Fraidich night. I wonder if she can _walk_ yet."

A staring match broke out. Winter leaned on her steely nerves to remain silent, but the longer those dead green eyes sat on her, the harder it got. "Am I supposed to care?" finally escaped from her tense lips.

"I'm not fucking stupid," he advised her between sips of water. "Who are you and what do you actually want?"

While she hadn't expected the charade to last terribly long, Winter also didn't think it would be dead in less than ten minutes. Tired of pretending to be a civilian already, she took up parade rest and assumed the soldier's posture she was so comfortable bearing. "Hm. Never cared much for small talk anyway. You have the eyes of many in Atlas. We know about you. We know what you can do."

"Uh huh. And who is 'we'?"

"People that can help solve your little passport issue." Her brow creased with unease when that failed to get the expected reaction. "I did say we know who you are. Or who you claim to be, at least."

Opher's gaze narrowed dangerously. "If you're trying to corner me for something, I suggest you get out before you acquire some regrets. Or worse."

By now, however, Winter was just as unmovable as he – there she stood, statuesque and nearly defiant. "Corner you? Please, contain your paranoia. I'm here with an offer." Again, he said nothing. "Isn't it a fair trade? Valid personal documentation for your consultation on a project championed by my superiors. All the good your assistance would do? Well, that's a bonus."

His interest was already beginning to fade, so much so that the TV received his gaze instead. "And what project would that be?"

"A world without Grimm." Winter allowed herself the tiniest smirk as his head slowly turned back to her. "It is the General's belief that Remnant belongs to humans and Faunus alone. We're going to take it from the beasts. Once and for all. Come join us."

One of the ripened fruits of ignorance seemed to have fallen at last; its tumble dragged a weird smile across Opher's pale face. "Uh huh. To call that a fool's errand would be _extremely_ generous."

"Is it? Dust has brought us, collectively, previously impossible power-"

Those words caused Opher to bust out laughing, peals so strong he let his head rest on the back of the sofa so he could fire them at the ceiling for a moment. "Whew. Sorry."

Winter's brow arched high. "Why was that funny?"

"Long story. Say I tell you to fuck off. How would you react?" He leaned his head all the way back to regard a now upside-down Winter. "Asking for a friend. Two friends, actually, one short, one tall, one grumpy, one coffee addict..."

Disgust stained her icy eyes. "If you're implying we would try to force your participation by putting pressure on people close to you… I'm a soldier, not a thug. I wouldn't stand for it."

He continued to gaze at her. "Then I can talk to you. You know what? I might consider it, but I want to get past this Beacon thing first. Maybe try again after tomorrow."

"Fair enough, I suppose." From a breast pocket she produced what Opher recognized as a chip scanner. "Do you have your ID?"

"Yeah, but why?" He stared at the open hand she reached out to accept it and waited for an explanation she never delivered. "Okay. I'll play along."

Once he plucked the fake from his pants pocket and relinquished it, Winter slipped it into the scanner's empty slot and looked at the screen. "Pre-loaded onboard external data. Spoofed credentials. Even the file structure is up to date. The police must have used physical defects to spot this, the automatic system never would have had a clue. I hope you paid your forger well."

Opher was busy checking the smoothness of his shaven face. "If I ever see him again, I'll give you his regards."

"Part of me wonders if Vale's Interior Ministry has a security breach." Satisfied, Winter handed back his chip. "We won't need to do much to turn this into bona fide documentation. The quality is excellent. Is there anything about yourself that you've said to anyone that we'd need to add to your story?"

"Indigo thinks I used to be in Atlas' Army."

"Well. That's quite a complication." Winter tapped at her Scroll. "I may need some extra time to work through those channels. What did you profess to be your MOS?"

"Just infantry." His dull green eyes lit up. "Wait a minute, I haven't agreed to anything yet. What's all this for?"

Her fingers continued to tap away. "Consider it a sign of goodwill. Like I said, we know what you've done and we've decided you're not a threat to anyone. Actually, quite the opposite." Her steely demeanor began to crack as she looked at her shoes with a frown. "Some of that goodwill may have come directly from me. I know you helped Weiss."

How she had access to this information was something Opher couldn't figure out; a few seconds' worth of thought led him to wonder if she had anything to do with Qrow Branwen. "I didn't help Weiss specifically, she just happened to be around at the time." One discharge of wind Dust flipped him over the back of the couch and onto his feet next to a startled Winter. "How _do_ you know all of this, by the way? Who told you? Was it her?"

"That's not important for our purposes." Winter collected herself and turned for the door. "And regardless of why you decided to help her, thank you all the same. If you see Weiss again-" She paused, needing a breath to steady her sudden unease. "Please don't tell her I'm here."

"Can't say I expected that request." Opher watched her shuffle for the exit, but was interrupted by Scroll noises from the leg pocket of his cargo pants. "Wow, they're actually going to decorate," he muttered, staring at Indigo's message. "So you _are_ a Schnee. These aren't the kinds of careers I'd expect your family to pursue. Then again, I guess I can say the same for Schwarze, now that I think about it."

"Yes, well." Winter smoothed down her snowy locks. "Another topic which isn't important for our purposes."

"Uh huh." Opher began to wonder about the consequences of his new ID. "You're going to track me through the new chip, aren't you?"

"Any further than the Interior Ministry already tracks everyone who lives here? No." Winter opened the door, but hesitated halfway out of it when he grunted. She glanced at what little of Opher's tattoo sleeve peeked out from under the long sleeve of his black shirt.

"Wait. I have a message for your General."

Her eyes snapped up to his. "Yes?"

"We might find some common ground, but I'm making one thing clear right now." The wide brim of his hat cast an unnerving shadow across his already dark face. "I am nobody's soldier. Not anymore."

Winter stepped back into his apartment, nailing him down with a glare the whole way. "And whose soldier were you? Who _are_ you?"

He tilted back his head, allowing some of the light from the ceiling fixtures to illuminate his smile. Her assurances about leaving his friends out of things allowed Opher to be a little more blunt than usual. "You'd have to accept a whole lot of new things for me to answer that. I assume I've already changed someone's mind about something, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me. I just don't know how much you're ready to hear."

"Our ears are open and I assure you we can handle anything."

Opher glanced back out one of the windows at the city of Vale beyond. "I don't think I agree with you."

* * *

"Ooo, he's cute."

Weiss, too incensed to keep reading, turned awkwardly in her desk chair to glower at Yang's back. The blonde was perched on top of the large floor bookshelf which also served as the windowsill for their sole dorm room window. Though she couldn't see the Scroll in Yang's hands, the position of her arms told the heiress that she was still using it to watch new students as they arrived. "You've been leering at people since noon! Do something useful!"

"You don't tell me how to spend my day off, I won't tell you how to spend yours." Yang put on a giant smirk, though she didn't turn around to let Weiss see it. "Why don't you come over here and join me? You could use a boyfriend. Or girlfriend. Or both! Not judging."

"First, what is _that_ supposed to mean, and second, it's not like browsing a market, you dunce!"

On this she had to agree. "True. It's really more like fishing!" Her eyes widened as another gaggle of new kids passed by below. " _Wow_. The biceps on that boy."

A solid _thunk_ rang out as Weiss allowed her head to land on the desktop. "I can't believe this is how you chose to start the week. At least Ruby is being productive."

"Speaking of..." The blonde used the device to call her little sister. "Hey! Finished?" she said the moment Ruby answered, putting the call on speaker.

Even from this distance, it was easy for Weiss to hear the response. "Yang! Barrel replacement isn't just something you can do in a couple of minutes!"

Yang's face went blank before acquiring a slightly annoyed tint. "You have literally been working on my gauntlets all weekend. It's Mandag. Aren't you done yet?"

Ruby let her have it with every bit of squeaky disgust in her body. "No! Do you know why? Because you can't even be bothered to properly maintain these things! The action is full of gunk! I can barely lock the bolts into battery! I can't believe the firing pins actually work, they're so worn-down! If you'd take ten minutes every, I don't know, _M_ _oon_ _cycle_ to clean the dang things, I would have been finished by now! But noooooooo, now I gotta strip and clean the whole fire control group and replace the bolts before I can even start calibrating anything for the new barrels-"

The rest of her rant was lost; Yang held the Scroll so far away from her ear that Ruby's words blended in with the chatter from the new students below. "I think your moodiness is rubbing off on her."

A glowering Weiss let that comment slide without counterattack, then listened to her team leader rant on. "She has a point about you never maintaining your gear. Has she even slept? I haven't heard her snoring for two nights now."

"She had a weird dream or something that's kept her up. And, honestly… I don't trust myself not to mess up her work. I'd rather just let her handle it." Yang brought the Scroll back toward her ear just in time for Ruby to begin running out of steam. "Feel better?"

Apparently not. "And now I have to spend gods only know how long doing maintenance on Crescent Rose _after_ I'm done basically rebuilding everything in your stupid gauntlets! I wanted to test the new priming thing on my ammo, you know! I might be able to supercharge the propellant loads and do something really cool!"

"Mhm. Love you too, by the way." Yang waved down at a few new kids who were waving up at her. "Take a break and come back! Before Weiss starts throwing her books at me. Again." Since all she got in reply was long-duration groaning, most of her attention was on the crowd. Now among their number were people dragging pallets, one of whom was the spindly Heather Rainglass, struggling so much with her pallet that a few of the kids around her actually moved to help. A few seconds later, Opher came into view, pushing a load of cargo ahead of himself with much more ease. "Huh. Opher's here. You'd like his hat." She had to lean slightly out the window to track him. "Aaaaand he's walking into our building. Must be dropping off some stuff for our new neighbors."

Ruby only spoke again a moment later. "Should we tell Pyrrha?"

Weiss looked up just in time to see the redhead take a few uncertain steps by their open door, then duck into their room to avoid clogging up the hallway for new arrivals finding their dorms. "I think she already knows."

"Gotta go, sis." After hanging up, Yang slipped off the bookshelf and walked over. "You wanna go talk to him?"

"Well..." Pyrrha scratched at her bare forehead for moment. "I was kind of hoping my replacement armor would get delivered today. Maybe he has it?"

"That's as good of an excuse as any. Let's see." After hastily cramming her feet into her boots, Yang was off down the hall. "Be right back, Weiss!"

"Oh no, please take your time." The heiress wore an actual smile for Pyrrha. "Not you. Her."

"Ahaha, right." On her way out to pursue Yang, she picked up a curious Jaune, who followed her down the hall and caught up as they reached one of the stairwells. "Oh! You didn't have to come with me."

"Bleh, it's fine. Tired of laying around in there anyway." He walked down the steps side-by-side with his team leader. "Besides, you always look so nervous when he shows up."

"Do I?" she remarked calmly. Damn that boy and his observational skills. Was she that easy to read?

When they reached the crowded, noisy lobby, they found Yang next to his pallet as he used a box cutter to strip it of its clear packaging. While her hands were still weak from the battering they'd endured, she did her best to help him detach the sticky wrap and throw it aside. "This is going to take me hours to sort out," he complained – not to Yang, but to someone on the Scroll in his hand. "Listen, clock me out at closing. I'm gonna stay here to take care of the other thing."

As Pyrrha and Jaune walked up, they learned his caller was Indigo. "Uhhhhhhh… okay, fine. If there's another shipment today, I'll just take it myself. Maybe even deputize Schwarze – she could use the exercise. Then when we get home, you can pick some fucking drapes and prove to her I know what I'm doing when I decorate a damn apartment."

"I am so looking forward to this fight." He glanced over at Pyrrha. "Hmm. I'll talk to you later. A line is starting to form."

"Yeah, yeah, good luck."

"Hello!" Pyrrha greeted, dipping her head briefly.

"You're here. What a surprise." Opher stared at the label on the first box with a frown. "I have no idea where any of these people are or who they might be. Do you three have stuff to get?"

The redhead shrugged. "Not Dust-related, no, but..."

"This isn't a Dust pallet, it's a general purpose pallet. Indigo only accepted the job because the courier payout was double the usual. Thing probably weighs as much as the airship it flew here in." Opher continued to pull boxes off and look at the labels. "I don't recognize any of these names. You know what? Help me stack this and you can look for your own stuff, if you have any."

"Uh, I'll pass, my fingers are still messed up." Yang gave way for Pyrrha and Jaune to get to work. "So, how's everyone doing after-" Here she paused to acknowledge the crowd behind her with a light frown. "You know."

"Nothing much to report. What about you?"

"Can't complain. Unless you're Weiss." The blonde watched Pyrrha hesitate with a large case.

"Ah! Good. My new armor." She carefully set it aside, separate from the rest of the things they were stacking. "Thank you again, by the way. For what you showed us."

Opher glared at a particularly heavy wooden crate. "Uh huh. Have you spread the news yet?" Awkward silence from all three made him fall still. "I'll take that as a no."

"Miss Goodwitch is, well..." Pyrrha looked up as someone parted the crowd. "...here."

"I see I was too late to help organize the distribution," she noted upon arrival. Her attention went to a squinting, mute Opher. "Ah. This saves me some time."

"I assume you're about to tell me to go somewhere else," he replied, already considering just blowing her off, getting done with his shipment, and leaving campus altogether.

Glynda adjusted her glasses with what, at least to the three students, seemed like a frown. "Certainly. I'll handle this. If you would head over to the tower..." she trailed off as his walked away, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him long enough for her to add, whisper-quiet, "...and take my personal apology for being shot down with you."

"Yeah. Fine." Opher pushed by her and through the gaggle of students to get outside, where he made a beeline for Beacon Tower.

Progress through this crowd was much easier; on the way, he recognized Blake, though not the girl with a ruddy brown ponytail hanging all over her shoulders as they walked. He didn't make eye contact with the feline Faunus. While he let himself take in the relative chaos for a moment – like the students themselves, he hadn't seen Beacon this busy – most of his thoughts went to the meeting at hand. "Wait… who am I supposed to be talking to?" he asked himself on the way up the tower steps a few minutes later. Looking at how far away the dorm complex stood dissuaded him of the notion of going back. "Oh, fuck it," he sighed, pushing open the doors and walking into the tower's stately lobby. There were three people around one table off to his left, all dressed in the same uniform. These weren't students – they looked slightly too old – but some kind of staff. Since it felt unlikely they were his intended targets, Opher moved away in a loose orbit of the central elevator shaft – at least until the doors opened. He came to a halt and eyeballed the person who emerged.

"Ah, Mister Riese," Professor Ozpin greeted with a smile. "There you are. We've got a lot to talk about."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I consider this chapter to be the end of the story's first "volume", if you're following the show's structure.


	18. Our Lady of Mountain Glenn

One-sided pleasantries began not long after Opher and Ozpin began the trip up to the Headmaster's office. "I know Glynda already called to apologize, but I would like to add my own regret in person. Argent Wright – the student whose actions accidentally downed your airship – is incredibly distraught," he stated, both hands on his cane and the courier off to his right, stone-faced and silent. "I would like your input, as well as Miss Stahl's, in regard to how we should proceed with any potential consequences."

"Why?" was all he said.

He subtly raised a brow. "Well, you were her victims, and we can't exactly ask the pilot of your shuttle for her opinion."

Opher's dull green eyes briefly met the brown ones across the way. "If my boss is angry about it, she hasn't mentioned it to me or her best friend. I personally don't give a damn. Accidents happen. If she's so upset, then that's enough for me."

"I see. I appreciate your forthrightness in this regard." Tap, tap, went his cane against the polished floor. "By the way, how did you manage to return to Vale? I do believe our airspace was closed by the Air Force until 5 AM – not to mention the lack of airships and pilots on campus." He regarded the toothy grin on Opher's face with confusion.

"We flew back, obviously," was his answer.

Ozpin cocked his head subtly. "Via… via airship?"

Something about this guy made him antsy – Opher masked his feelings with an application of scowling, nuclear sarcasm. "No, we sprouted wings. Like a bird."

Up went his brow. "I see." They arrived a moment later and walked out into the gear- and window-laden workspace, where the clock mechanism clicked away gently all around them. Once seated in his high-backed chair, he said, "Even though you were advised to come back here by Glynda."

Little squeaks came from the soles of Opher's sneakers as he shuffled around the office. "It wasn't necessary. I wanted to get Indigo home and I didn't feel like waiting around here."

"Hmm. I suppose the bigger problem is that you attacked two of my students."

"Yeah, and the girl that put a gun to Indigo's head is lucky she isn't dead right now," he said, gripping the back of one of the chairs.

"I can't say I appreciate _that_ sort of honesty quite as much." A sip of coffee came and went. "Coco Adel was following her best judgment in regards to the safety of her classmates. And to be fair, you two are even more fortunate that you passed exposure checks, given the amount of Grimm my students fought that night." His cool demeanor receded enough for a light frown to appear. "I saw you kill quite a few via means I have yet to find explanations for. Care to fill in the gaps?"

"Ugh, I _knew_ she had a camera." What was it about this shriveled-up old man that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing straight? Opher squinted at him as long as it remained feasible before directing a glance toward at the gears directly above. "You don't know?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I did, Mister Riese."

Something was deeply wrong here, but Opher couldn't figure out what. He turned his back on Ozpin while grappling with the tremendous shriek of his instincts. "How could you _not_ know? You're the Headmaster of Remnant's best combat school, or so the advertisements say," he stated, though some of those words felt as if they weren't wholly his own. The logical sections of his mind bickered with more primal areas bolted directly to his outlandish Aura for reasons beyond his grasp. "I mean, surely you have more experience than everyone here. You must have come across what I've done at least once."

Correct on both points, but Ozpin only vocalized that about the first. "You're not wrong about my experience, but what you've demonstrated is a Dust interaction that is completely new to all of us," he replied, leaned back in his chair while watching every hitch and hesitation in the courier's body language.

Finally, Opher took a seat. What he said next wasn't exactly a deliberately constructed thought – no, this question would be launched forth by subconscious demands for information he apparently lacked. " _Why_?"

The surprise on the old professor's face was mostly authentic. "Why what?"

"Why doesn't anyone seem to know?" he clarified, throwing up his hands. After a few seconds of rubbing his eyes in silence, he added, "Forget it. What do you want from me?"

"An explanation about the process would be appreciated." Ozpin himself now bore reservations about his company, but unlike Opher, he proved far better at obscuring them. His placid, studious demeanor barely changed. "Here, I'll give you something to start with."

He brought up Coco's video so they'd have something visible to discuss, scrubbing through it until reaching a point where the technique was most clearly evident – not an easy feat with the shaky quality of the footage. Then he let it play. On screen was the end of the huge battle that had occurred just after Ruby, Pyrrha, and their teams joined up with Penny and Ciel, followed by the subsequent construction of the ice fortress suggested by Weiss to buy them some time. Dozens of ice crystals were flung by the students – without the characteristic glow which indicated they had been primed – and went off only after Pyrrha issued the vocal command " _Do it now_!"

Ozpin eyed Opher for his reaction to it all, but found a dearth of emotion instead. "I don't believe Dust is voice-activated," he stated lowly. "My brief chat with Miss Rose and Miss Nikos produced very little in the way of answers, so I'll ask you: how does this method work, exactly?"

"It's…" As with Pyrrha, he struggled to explain something that felt so basic. He threw his memory all the back to Carmine's demonstration, fifteen hundred years ago, trying to recall how he felt upon seeing it for the first time. Digging through that many recollections, however, was tantamount to hunting down one needle in a stack of needles – the task was made even harder by his inexplicable nervousness. "You just _do_ it. You ask. Remnant answers. I don't know what science would tell you about what happens next."

" _Remnant_ answers?" Ozpin leaned forward, resting his arms on the large glass desktop between them. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Big surprise." A deeply uncomfortable Opher straightened his hat with a powerful frown. "You know, Dust isn't exactly shiny coal. It has other traits." While he wasn't genuinely hot, his instincts prompted him to roll up his long sleeves to his elbows, exposing his tattoos as he went. "I've seen the questions. About how it works. Why it's inert unless primed to act by Aura, why its structure changes. Why it-" Two things shut him up: the new expression Ozpin wore, and the way his eyes darted back and forth as if he were reading something. When Opher finally deduced what by looking down at his left arm, he suddenly felt even more nervous than before.

"Oh, excuse me," he apologized, masking his bitter shock with a gentle smile. "I don't often see tattoos so intricate. My compliments to the artist. Please continue."

Opher stood up, covering his arms in the same motion, then stepped backward. His face twitched with uncertainty. "Why ask me to show up in person but not Indigo? She was there too."

"You're the one with the talent." Ozpin held his pose and smile. "This isn't the first time you've been in the Emerald Forest during combat, is it?" Silence, so he answered the question himself. "I know you left campus at the beginning of our second trial, Mister Riese. I also know you got back just before it ended."

His inexperience with technology had finally caught up with him; Opher silently cursed the existence of the scanner system and his own stupidity as he sat back down again. "Yeah, I went out there."

"Why? What were you doing?"

"Answering a question." A staring match broke out for several seconds. "Which happened to involve stopping several kids from getting killed as a bonus. Are you about to tell me why that's a bad thing?"

Ozpin's gaze hardened. "Civilian interference in Academy operations is forbidden, Mister Riese. We have these rules for a reason. If we allowed every concerned party out into the forest during combat, the body count would be immense. Parents would die with their children – and if they were lucky enough to live, they'd be cast out due to exposure. Which begs the question: how is it that you've exposed yourself to _so many_ Grimm without any apparent consequence?"

"Does it matter? I passed the police scan," he fired back, squinting just as hard.

"It doesn't end there. You have deliberately inserted yourself into Beacon's affairs. We are Vale's first line of defense-"

Opher couldn't stifle a chuckle at this. "Bullshit you are, the Army is." The humor on his face flashed out of existence. "You just have the kids try to take new territory from the Grimm. How well is that going?"

Irritation launched him from his chair; he leaned over the desk to appear more intimidating, though it seemed to have little effect. "I am not here to discuss such issues with you, sir, I'm here to figure out why you're getting involved in the business of _my Academy_."

"Oh, and you're welcome." Their stances were now matched, since Opher's agitation finally had an outlet – anger – which made him feel more comfortable glaring at his interrogator than trying to maintain decorum. The baffled look he got made him smile. "Everyone came back, didn't they? How often do your trials have a one hundred percent survival rate?"

"What are you saying?"

His wry smile grew. "What I've already said. You're welcome."

"Are you seriously implying you covered the entire area _alone_?" Ozpin asked forcefully, surprised about the admission, though not so surprised he could pull it off given what Coco's video showed. "Impossible."

Opher broke their standoff first by plopping back down in his chair. "I'm just saying that some weird shit can happen when I get motivated."

"And what exactly _motivated_ you so?" No answer came, forcing Ozpin to lean even farther forward to try and frighten an answer out of him. "Silence is not an option. You are already skating on thin ice by violating rules which I have the power to enforce, and I can judge you instantly. I do not want to have you removed – you clearly possess knowledge which could help my students succeed – but your unwillingness to be candid about anything gives me tremendous pause." Again, silence was his reward. "I cannot help but feel you are hiding something from us, Mister Riese."

It struck him with amusement to find Ozpin just as agitated as he, something he displayed with a weak smile. "You're not wrong. But you know what? It ain't just that. Even if I was willing to show off to every person that wanted to look, I can't. I don't know if they'd be ready to see it."

Ozpin sat down next, weighed by racing thoughts about what _else_ this man could possibly have up his sleeve. He used that last sentence to start backing away from the cliff's edge. "I may agree with you. What little I have seen of your talent is life-changing at best and possibly destabilizing at worst. This doesn't even include the new variety of Dust I saw you use. The blue fire… some kind of plasma-based species, perhaps? Publicize where you found it and I am certain the Schnee family will pay you a claims fee beyond your wildest dreams." Once again, Opher's lips remained sealed. "Unless it's something you found as a surveyor for the company? Give us something, Mister Riese, please. We can work together for the betterment of everyone involved. I only need to know what I would be getting myself and my Academy into."

"Nah. I don't think you're ready yet. I'm not sure anyone is." Admitting it out loud drained him of much of his snark; Opher felt a trillion years old, and suspected he looked the part too. That was the end of their chat, so far as he was concerned, so he stood up and prepared to leave. "Let the kids do with it what they will, there's nothing left I can teach them about Remnant's retort anyway. And if you're worried about danger, I mean, if _they_ haven't managed to kill themselves with it yet, you know it's gotta be safe, right?" An adjustment of his hat was in order. "I'm gonna go finish dealing with my shipment, then I'm going home. I won't interfere in your fights anymore. Just leave me alone."

 _Remnant's retort_. His usage of that phrase froze Ozpin's blood solid. "Wait!" he snapped as Opher made it halfway to the elevator. "Answer me one thing. Just one. How did you discover this?"

He turned to look over his shoulder, and, figuring it was safe to name-drop his lost love since her death was so long ago, decided to be halfway honest. "I didn't. I hear the concept came from a woman named Carmine Tanager a long, long time ago. Don't ask me why _she_ ain't famous." He stared at the elevator controls. "Uh… what button do I…?"

"I'll open it." One tap on his desktop opened the doors for Opher – his other hand was busy with his Scroll out of sight while he frantically tried to get into contact with Olivine. "We're not done. I'll be in touch."

"Figures." The doors closed just after he entered the elevator and he was gone.

The Headmaster finally lost his infinite cool. "Damn!" he snapped. Since texting failed, he called his Maiden, but even that required two attempts to succeed. "Olivine, where are you?"

"At dinner. Why are you blowing up my Scroll, old man?"

He let his audible lack of calm do most of the talking. "Come to my office, please. Quickly," was he all said before hanging up. "Damn!" exploded from his lips again. "She is _still_ causing us problems!"

Minutes passed before the elevator disgorged a grumpy Olivine, dressed in her hunting outfit, but unarmed. She carried a plate in her hand with slices of pizza and ate even as she walked toward his desk. "The fuck crawled up your ass?" she demanded, losing her irritation when she saw Ozpin's current state. "Oh gods, this can't be good. You look like you saw a ghost."

"Apparently we've missed yet _another_ clutch of Lady Tanager's followers, but this time one of them knows the true art and is in a Kingdom!" he gripped the edge of his desk while formulating a plan. "We need to subject him to a more thorough interrogation than is possible on campus."

Olivine, brow creased with concern, set her plate down to think. "I could ambush him, knock him out, and send him to Mountain Glenn. They know how to get info outta people. And if he fights back… they're easy to replace."

"I agree with sending him there, but I have serious doubts about their ability to restrain him for more than a few minutes. No… they'll need help." He looked up at her, face hard with worry. "Have Emerald search for him in the dorms and bait him to the south end of campus by whatever means she can think of. Lady Grace will capture him and assist with questioning. If he can sense her magic out in the wilderness, it won't matter. There won't be anyone meaningful for him to tell."

"I'll go get her myself. She might not know enough to make a very good illusion, though, shouldn't we send Qrow?"

Ozpin shook his head at this. "I would if he hadn't been speaking to the fool on Fraidich night. His stupidity limits my options as far as keeping us separate from this process are concerned."

"Aren't we just gonna kill him anyway?" No response; she looked over at him curiously. "Unless—you don't think he could get out of it somehow, do you?"

With a sigh, he shed his glasses, then rubbed at his tired eyes. "I'm not entirely sure what to expect. For one thing, I don't know what his Semblance is. For another, there is cuneiform tattooed on his arm. Very close to the Old Script, based on what I read of it – including some words I've not seen in many, _many_ years. That would insinuate someone passing down an almost unbroken chain of knowledge thousands of years long. I don't want to risk him fleeing – and while the Malachite syndicate is resourceful, they're not strong enough to stop someone who knows the true art. I can't even be sure that he's operating alone."

"Damn, that's a good point." Olivine smoothed back her green hair. "Maybe I should go with her."

"One cook in this kitchen is enough – and you make Beatrix's daughters too nervous. Besides, even if he has help, no human or Faunus alive can stand up to a Maiden. I just want to be sure that we know what he knows before she disposes of him permanently." He put his specs back on and retrieved his Scroll before sitting down. Something roughly like a smile was on his face again. "At any rate, I'll need your help with relaying information to Salem once we figure out how big the problem truly is. Be sure you're available for a few hours at least."

* * *

What was left on his pallet seemed to belong to the teachers or staff of Beacon, so Opher left the hustle and bustle of the dorms behind and made his way toward the relatively quiet faculty area as evening started to yield to dusk across the eastern sky. There were still kids around – a few of which asked him if he knew where such-and-such professor might be, a question at which he could only shrug. After staring at the manifest again, he trundled along the pavement with his load in search of where to drop off the remainder of it. Once he reached the blue flagstone buildings, however, he came to a stop to eyeball the manifest once again. "Can't I just leave this here and let them sort it out?" he mumbled.

An indigo-colored flash, out of the corner of his eye, made him look up. He saw someone with his boss' hair color walking away from him, though the style was all wrong, as was the outfit – this person wore pants, something Indigo would never do to herself with such heat still in the air. Opher discarded it as coincidence and went back to work, dragging his pallet into one of the buildings. As he sorted out what was left in silence, someone else entered through the double doors. "Excuse me," she said. "I saw your pallet, are you a courier?"

To call this woman's looks nondescript would have been generous; she was all brown hair and brown eyes, with a plain face and equally demure clothing in the form of a long, gray skirt and a simple, button-up powder blue blouse. After a second of examination, he placed her above the age range of a student, but not by much. Still slightly agitated from his chat with Ozpin, he couldn't match her smile. "Yeah, why?"

"Can I borrow you for a second? We've got some outgoing stuff and we're not sure how it needs to be set up on our pallets. You're the only courier I've seen out here all day." Emerald, with a hand to her throat to help alter her voice for the illusory woman she projected, examined her unwitting prey for any sign her Semblance wasn't working. After finding none, she pressed ahead with the plan. "We'll get yelled at by Goodwitch if we don't do it right. It shouldn't take long. Please?"

Thanks to Emerald's prudence in ensuring the illusion was always at her current actual position, the resulting distortion in his Aura matched where the sound was coming from. He had little reason to suspect anything wrong. "I don't know if my boss will like me leaving this stuff unattended…"

She projected a full-intensity smile on her mental puppet. "I promise I won't keep you. Besides, nobody's going to steal anything, they'd get in serious trouble and the whole place is armed to the teeth. You'd have to be _real_ dumb to try anything here."

"Hmm…" Opher was already messaging Indigo with his Scroll to seek her thoughts on the matter. "You a teacher, or what?"

"Oh, no, I'm just an assistant. Basically I run around and do the menial work for the professors on campus. Kinda like an office bitch."

He snorted at this. A moment later, Indigo's reply arrived. _Go for it_ , she said, _Makes us look better to Goodwitch and_ _gets_ _us more work, right?_

"All right, I guess I'm in." Away went his Scroll while his other hand motioned at the pallet jack. "Do I need this?"

"No, the shipment isn't going out today. We just need some help getting it ready." Emerald and her projection held out their collective hand for a shake. "I'm Abilene, by the way. Thanks for the help."

"Call me Opher." He obliged her with a brief handshake, then followed her back outside and down the quiet walkway. "I have to warn you, I'm still a little new to this job, so my stacking prowess may not be the best."

"If you have any at all, you're already doing better than us. We don't usually do manual labor." Emerald constantly checked the stability of her unseen connection with his brain. The characteristics of his Aura confused her a bit – she could usually sense the magnetic fringes of a person's Aura, but not his. Whatever the difference was didn't seem to affect her Semblance, so she shrugged it off. "I wish the warehouses were closer. Takes ages to get anything to the airships."

"Hmm." Opher cast his eyes up toward the early evening sky, not interested in small talk. "How much stuff are we talking about here?"

Emerald's false persona rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Three or four lots. Most of it is items we're sending back to family of… you know."

That killed their desire to speak for some time – at least until Opher looked back and saw how far they had gotten from Beacon Tower. The south gate stood not fifty meters ahead of them. "Where the hell is this place? I don't have all day."

"Sorry, it's over here." She led him off the main walkway and toward a bland, white building with an angled metal roof. The structure was smaller than an individual dormitory, especially from a height standpoint – it was only one story tall, not three. Emerald pressed a button to activate the vertical door so they could get in, then hit that switch again to close it behind them.

"Got any lights in here?" he asked as the outside glow departed. While suspicion had crept in by now, actual fear was far, far away. When he failed to hear his companion moving around in search of a light switch, Opher looked toward the distortion in his Aura caused by her presence. "Hello-" It was already too late to react once he registered the magic flying toward him. Amber drove a cloud of air directly into his lungs, laced with heavy sedatives; so powerful was the chemical that even as his Aura realized what was happening and tried to counteract it, it was already knocking him out. Seconds later, he toppled to the ground, unconscious.

Emerald used her Scroll to light up the scene. "That was easy," she remarked to Amber, who stood next to her while gazing at his limp body.

"For you. My work is only just beginning." A thankful smile appeared regardless. "You did great, though! Really smooth."

"One does try their best," she replied, tossing one of her long locks. "You want to move him out now?"

Amber suspended Opher on an uneven bubble of air and nodded. "Yes. Spot for me?"

"You got it." Emerald opened the door again and peered around the corner toward campus to check for unwanted eyes. "Clear. I'll report back to Miss Duprix, you just get outta here."

"Thank you, Emmy." Amber wasted no further time, draping Opher's frame on her shoulder – an awkward fit, given his height difference – and darting out on the back of another expulsion of wind magic. Her boots scraped fiercely on the stone. In five seconds, she made the south gate; in ten more, she was over a hundred meters into the woods and well out of sight of the campus or anyone in it. Now safe, she roughly deposited him against a tree trunk to stretch her arms. "Well, well," she sighed, looking down at him as the birds resumed singing nearby. "Let's see why you make Olivine so antsy."

A search was in order. She rifled through his pockets and found his Scroll in one, his ID chip in another, then a whole collection of small Dust crystals in those pockets attached to the legs of his forest camouflage cargo pants. Her interest went to the device immediately, where, to her surprise, she found a grand total of three contacts in his list: Indigo Stahl, Schwarze Voss, and a therapist's office apparently run by someone named Cynthia Ives. "Three people? That's a little odd," she mumbled to herself. A more thorough investigation could wait, but she did hesitate long enough to examine the tattoos on his arm for a moment. Unlike Ozpin, Amber couldn't decode any of the writing – but the Maiden attached to her soul creaked with gentle, wordless unease.

Unfortunately, that feeling would have to sit there for a while; she needed to get her prey to Mountain Glenn. Amber put his stuff back into his pockets, hefted him onto her shoulder, then twisted the early autumn breeze into a set of invisible wings which she used to coast through the forest and toward the southern part of Carnforth Plain.

* * *

 _Enforced sleep_ was a magical land which Opher's mind hadn't occupied in so long that neither it, nor he, knew exactly what to do at first but merely exist within its bounds. He knew his body was moving, but by what means he had no idea, nor did he know where it was going. While his Aura continued to struggle with modern chemistry, it detoxified bits of him by brute force, which meant magnetically ejecting molecules of the sedative from his skin in beads of sweat. This allowed his brain to turn parts back on piecemeal – the first to reactivate had been his sense of balance, which was why he knew he was in motion in the first place.

He dreamed because his brain saw the chance to. Indistinct smears of color on backgrounds just as devoid of detail, swirling around him as though he stood in the eye of a cyclone of memories tens of thousands of years across. Most of these sights were skeletons of things, or concepts of people whose faces were as lost as their lives. Some of them, though, were beyond even waking reality in their exact replication. His parents flew by. A lanky, pallid man with a smile that never stopped and lustrous green eyes. Next to him, a taller woman with chocolate skin and golden eyes like faceted gemstones, who seemed content to wear a light frown. Both figures vanished into dust when he reached out. More solid people filed past – the other residents of his village from years more distant than the stars in the sky. The loves before Carmine that he'd lost were next, then, finally, she arrived, taller than even Pyrrha Nikos. Her jade eyes glittered playfully. A giant spear was in her rosy hand. The holy glow of her power surrounded her like a halo. Seeing her again made him notice something about the memory of the magic attack from just before he blacked out – it had that _tinge_. Not hers, exactly, a minty inferno whose tenor and tone he'd never forget even if the planet crumbled to nothing, but it held the same intensity. The finest expression of the true art he'd seen since the war before – a star among flickering candles. _Carmine, was it…_

 _I never did get along with my sisters._ She was gone a second later. Everything went with her, people, ghosts, and what little well-defined dreamscape remained. He was alone.

Some breaking news from his inner ears arrived: Opher's body had come to a stop. Thought ceased in favor of observation. Full hearing came back to him moments later. "What is this wet stuff on his skin?" asked a female voice – young, perhaps a teenager. Her speech was smooth, but not monotonic. "I don't think sweat is usually red. Did she beat him up or something?

"Not our problem. Don't touch it or mom will throw a fit." For reasons beyond him, it sounded exactly the same as the first.

_Am I hearing things?_

No, his Aura replied, there were two distortions here. He could feel the sedative pooling in seemingly-random spots, kept there so his essence could study and protect against future encounters with it; an immune system above and beyond what white cells existed in the fluid pretending to be his blood.

 _Twins, then._ Motor functions returned. Legs were operational. Arms too – a twitch of his wrists revealed that he was restrained. He was seated in a chair. Air – wind, perhaps – moved around his body. Smells reached his nose, earthy, woodsy, with a hint of flowery perfume, cut by the rusting of steel and concrete dust. The return of consciousness shifted from a trickle to an avalanche. Seconds later, his eyes popped open. Two girls stood in front of him, pale identical twins in similar dresses and cross-laced thigh boots, though each had their own color motif – red on his left, white beside her. Fur stoles – black for the red girl, and a strange bluish-white for her twin – were wrapped around their necks. At first blush, they seemed to be about Indigo's height. Both had jet black hair, though white's was long and red's barely reached her shoulders. Both were also armed; red had a pair of black claws strapped to her forearms, while white's boots were decorated with ornate, bladed heels.

"Awake already, huh," white said.

"I'll let mom know," red replied instantly. "Watch him." She left the room via a doorway with no visible door attached.

Tracking her there spurred Opher into examining the rest of the room. Dilapidated wooden planks made up its walls; gaps in the shoddy construction allowed him to see slivers of faint evening sunlight. Another look out the doorway confirmed it – he was in some kind of shack. A single operating light fixture hung above, and since he didn't need to look up to notice this, that meant something was missing. "Where the fuck is my _new_ hat?" he spat at white.

She peered at him down her nose to reply. "Behind you on the floor, but I'm pretty sure that's the least of your problems."

Cute; maybe he'd let her live, so long as she didn't get in his way whenever he chose to leave. Meanwhile, he sat still, feigning weakness in order to figure what the hell was going on. Red showed up again a couple of minutes later with a portly middle-aged woman in her wake, who had short, neatly-trimmed blonde hair, plus blue eyes, with a layered purple and white dress and corset. Frilly detached sleeves covered her arms from wrist to bicep. A tattoo of a spider in its web spread across her left shoulder, artwork so large that some of the web reached her neck.

"Goodness me," she said, drawling her words with an accent he couldn't place, "It's not often I have strangers dropped into my lap so… unceremoniously." She paced around him in slow circles for examination. "Oh, sweetie, I think this is yours." Here she paused to place his hat back on with a sarcastic smirk. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Mountain Glenn, your new home for… well, I suppose that depends on you. Don't worry, though, honey, we'll treat you right." The faintly red beads of fluid on his face, neck, and hands caught her eye. "Hmm? You feelin' all right? Didn't think it was hot enough to sweat blood."

"Shouldn't we get to work, mom?" red asked.

"Oh… I reckon that's a good idea. Our Lady seems a little more irritable than usual. Let's not test her patience." White stomped one foot; this ejected a concealed knife from her boot into her ready palm, which ended up against Opher's throat. A claw on red's arm joined it shortly afterward as she started the interrogation. "To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"

He was more interested in the fly buzzing around his improperly-fitted hat than the weaponry against his neck. "Opher."

Peals of laughter escaped white's thin lips. "That is so stupid!" she gasped.

"Save your giggles for after we're done, Melanie." With one hand, she reached behind her back and produced a tan-colored folding fan to wave more air against her round face.

"Hey, mom, there's something on his arm." Red dutifully rolled up his left sleeve to display more of the tattoos underneath. Their ancient, precious knowledge was completely incomprehensible to all three women. "What are these things?"

When no answer came, her mother's wry smile flattened. "I suggest you answer Miltia's question, sweetheart, otherwise you're gonna start leaking inconvenient fluids from inconvenient places." Her twins pressed their blades harder into his throat, but he said nothing. "Oh my, what a hard man you are!" She nodded to Melanie, who immediately drove her weapon into Opher's right forearm. "Not so tough now, are-"

He only glanced at the knife. Despite the wooden walls of the shack dulling his ability to detect the presence of any other people outside, there was a magical pang some distance away which shone with the intensity of a lighthouse. A little smile now rested on his face, at which the mother and her twins exchanged surprised looks.

"Oh, great, he's like Tock. No wonder she's pissed off," Melanie complained. "I'll go get the Dust."

"Do be quick about it, I don't want to waste time breaking his Aura." The rhythmic beats of her fan intensified since the air felt just a little more stagnant – the way he kept smiling with a knife sticking out of his arm wasn't helping her nerves. Once Melanie departed, she added, "Enjoy it while you can, sweetheart. When we're done with you, you'll never smile again."

"Uh huh. I'd like to talk to the people who actually kidnapped me, because it sure as fuck wasn't you three idiots." The next thing he said was screamed out the nearby doorway. "Show yourself, asshole! I feel your power!"

Miltia's eyes widened a little before she looked to her mother for answers. "Wait, what does he feel-"

"Shhh. Wait outside for me, okay?" She watched her daughter obey, yanking the knife from Opher's arm as she went with no visible reaction from him. She again locked eyes with her captive. "Now I understand why she's so antsy… then again, your eyes ain't silver. How very strange." She soon realized the wound from Melanie's knife was completely sealed over. All that was left was the hole in his long sleeve. "Patched up so soon? What _is_ your Semblance, exactly?"

"You're looking at it." Opher peered at the thick iron shackles which secured his wrists to the heavy chair. Seconds later, they glowed red with the heat input of internally discharged fire Dust. Seconds after that, they were malleable enough for him to yank his hands upward. His flesh sizzled for only a moment before it healed over too. Never mind that the woman's bladed fan had been raked against his chest during the escape; it dragged rips only through his shirt, while his iron Aura defeated the steel tips with a small amount of sparks. "I'm beginning to get irritated," he growled while rising to his feet.

"Don't you move!" she warned him loudly, the business end of her fan aimed at his face. "Maybe you're a tough nut to crack, but we've got your Scroll, sunshine, we know about your lady friends. Being uncooperative will have consequences for them – don't think just because they're snug as a bug behind Vale's old wall, that means they're safe."

Annoyance sublimated into fury, though not the type of anger she could see on his face. Opher raised his left hand, folded the tip of his middle finger under his thumb, then flicked the woman clear out of the shack through its rickety wall with an emission of the true art's breath – a deliberate choice to attract the other magician outside. She flew, screaming, through the air, out of his vision. A moment later there was a tremendous crash, vocal outbursts of horror, plus the terrified shrieks of her two daughters. Melanie was the first to defend her mother; she barged through the new hole and lashed a sweeping kick at the side of his neck with the blade heel of her boot – only for the metallic injection of his essence to stop her momentum cold. As she stumbled out of the way, her sister arrived, driving the giant claws attached to her wrists directly into his breastbone. Their tips broke off with impact – the remainder of the kinetic energy went up Miltia's arms and sent her stumbling backwards, numb with pain.

The horror in her eyes drove Melanie into a deeper rage. "You fucking bastard!" she shrieked, pushing herself off the nearest wall to gain energy for another roundhouse aimed at his head. This one he caught with his left hand. One flick of fingers on each hand ejected the girls out of the shack through different walls; now too damaged to stand, the unstable building collapsed on his head in a cloud of dust and splinters.

Amber dashed around the corner of another edifice just in time to see the shack topple. Malachite family members were scattered everywhere as their purple-clad cohorts aimed all manner of firearms and bows at what was left of the structure. She found the matriarch slumped against the base of a different building – a half-collapsed, dull structure with pharmacy signage – a few meters away. "Beatrix!"

"Ma'am…" Getting herself on her feet required Amber's strength. Wood splinters littered her hair and clothing. "We got a bit of a problem." The sight of her unconscious daughters caused a squeal of anguish. " _My babies_!"

The shack's remains shifted – one section of roof which had struck Opher in the skull and lingered, hiding him from sight, finally tilted and dropped off. He smacked it aside with his hand, which was enough reason for one of the purple-clothed underlings to open fire with her shotgun. All her colleagues followed suit. Volleys of steel slugs, Dust bullets, buckshot, and arrows flew toward him. The slugs and pellets bounced off of him uselessly, leaving more holes in his clothes, while the Dust-laden rounds blew up too soon to reach their target due to enforced detonation by his immense Aura. The arrows he let sink into his flesh, but he ripped them out directly afterward – if they weren't in easy reach of his hands, he set them on fire and let them burn away instead.

"No, stop shooting!" Amber yelled. "I need him alive!" When they failed to heed her, she produced her staff, extended it to its full length, and held it above her head. The gale she summoned blew everyone off their feet backwards, ensuring any further shots went skyward. Even Beatrix ended up on her rear once more.

Opher did not fall. He stepped out of the obliterated shed and found himself on the outskirts of a clearly unfinished settlement much larger than a village; it even had ruined skyscrapers, as well as bare steel frames of equal height that never received their exterior walls. Almost all of these buildings leaned dangerously. There were streets that ran between them, too, broken and grass-infested, plus the beginnings of a city wall whose shattered remains displayed bent steel re-bar inside broken concrete. Behind him, however, stood the untouched forest. Wood crunched under his sneakers as he walked. "Caramel," he said to Amber, describing what her magic tasted like to his ancient senses. "Wood smoke and sea salt. Huh. So she wasn't lying."

She pointed her staff at him while Beatrix scrambled on hands and knees over to Melanie's motionless body. "I think you're concussed. Stop babbling at me." The lack of visible injuries from the slugs caused, at first, confusion, then bitter hatred. "And stay where you are!"

"Why should I?" he asked, using his foot to nudge aside debris as he approached. Miltia was in his direct path – one of the men felt compelled to defend her, snatched his rifle off the ground, and fired another shot at Opher. His reward was an outstretched hand, then an ejection of ice that slammed into his face, wrapped around his entire head, then froze it to the grassy soil once its impulse forced it to strike the ground. Panicked screaming erupted as others tried to bash the ice off of his face with their weapons. The howls of distant Grimm soon followed. Sporadic gunfire broke out again, though it did nothing to stop him from walking closer to Amber.

"No!" Beatrix screamed at her subordinates as she tried to shield Melanie from the ricocheting bullets. Miltia, unfortunately, was much too far out of her reach. "You're gonna hit my babies!"

Unwilling to kill him without a successful interrogation, Amber reached into a belt pouch to prepare more of the red sedative powder as he drew nearer. Before she could fully charge the wind magic needed to launch it, however, he whipped a lightning bolt at her face and sent her tumbling through the air with a screech. She managed to catch herself via gravity magic just before crashing into the concrete wall several meters away, her outfit smoking faintly with the residual heat. "Damn you!" she snarled.

"You kids be quiet while the grown-ups are talking." Opher snapped his arms out to his sides to emit a wall of blue fire against those still stupid enough to shoot at him. Some, standing too close, were engulfed by the azure inferno and went up like matchsticks. The rest ceased their attacks and scrambled away toward the safety of the ruined city. One second's worth of pained screaming from those on fire passed before Amber tore through the conflagration, staff whirling like a propeller, straight at him. An injection of gravity Dust into her weapon slowed its rotation enough for him to grab it on contact; leverage applied by wind Dust allowed him to twirl it with her still attached, before a solid yank of his arms swept her over his head and spiked her into the ground.

Amber rolled forward on her shoulders as she landed, flinging bolts of uneven red fire magic at him the whole way – these he bent around himself with flicks of his wrists and even more wind Dust. They pelted the grass and all hell broke loose – spreading flames cast a ruddy tint through the early evening glow as the first of the monsters arrived. A whole den of Taijitu emerged from the treeline, tracing slithered paths in search of distress from the victims of the blue fire whom no longer existed. Only four detectable targets were on site: the Malachite family, now all conscious and huddled together in terror, plus Amber herself. She paid little mind to the Grimm; the moment her heels contacted soil, she launched forward again with a guttural roar, spewing wind and water from one hand as she used her other for attempted staff strikes against Opher's neck. He was always just out of her reach, guided to safety by gusts at his command, body always tilted and swiveled just enough to avoid the weapon while puffs of air swerved her torrent toward the Grimm that attacked instead. Every swing and motion came with an angry grunt from her lips.

Then Opher ejected a column of the blue fire directly into her unprotected chest.

She discharged enough water magic just in time to absorb the stellar heat – and before her Aura-propelled internal iron could conduct its thermal energy into her organs and cook her alive. The resulting steam explosion sent her bouncing across the ground. Each impact forced out a yelp of surprise – even pain – until finally she landed in a heap next to the Malachite women. Her nervous system tingled viciously, overwhelmed by the amount of incoming magic whose power it knew how to detect. "Agh…" she whined, struggling to sit upright. Like Opher, much of her attire was torn. Her frilly top and cloak suffered the most; the latter now looked much like Qrow's shabby old cape.

Melanie and Miltia were armed with ranged weapons discarded by the gang members. They defended their mother from an encroaching horde of baby Ursae, shooting as fast as they could pull the triggers. "Miss Grace!" Miltia called between shots. "What's going on?! Who is-"

"Get… get out of here," Amber gasped as she hauled herself to her feet. A wildly smirking Opher wandered toward them on slow, easy strides. "Into the ruins. I'll stop the Grimm from chasing you. I need you alive."

Beatrix herself managed to scuttle over, pick up a lost handgun, and fire at the little black nightmares. "I don't feel right leavin' you, ma'am – despite the, uh, _extremely_ frightening circumstances," she said while aiming shots.

"I'm out!" Melanie gasped. She searched through the grass and smoke for a magazine that might fit her rifle. "Damn it! 'Tia! Cover us!"

"Listen, I appreciate your loyalty, but there's nothing you can do. All of you have to get out of here." One arm swept out to engulf the beasts in a tsunami of crystal-clear water; it drove them all the way back into the forest, extinguishing some of the fire and shattering tree trunks loudly in the bargain. "Now!"

"Amber… what exactly are you intendin' to do, ma'am?"

She grinned nervously at Beatrix, then glanced at the pouch of sedative powder on her belt. "Put him back to sleep. I'll come get you when I'm done."

At length, the Malachite family took their leave; the twins lingered to shoot at Grimm for a moment, then they too were gone – he let them leave without protest. Opher and Amber stood meters apart now, staring each other down as she tapped into her gift and he lingered there, still, waiting for a reason to care about it. The tornado she unleashed next acquired a crimson tint – every pounce of the powder streamed from its storage pouch and into the twisted maelstrom, before she shoved the cyclone at him with a visceral screech and a thrust of her staff. The surge of power which came next sent her nerves aflame. Her wind was now his, seized by an explosion of the true art not even her Maiden could fully comprehend. He twisted relentlessly, limbs guiding the air into a wall of sound and anger which swept up everything it touched, be it grass fire, shattered tree trunks, or the various Grimm which homed in on Amber's abject terror. They ended up at the center of this howling catastrophe; so immense was its wrath that the ground upon which they stood had been scoured to subsoil. Seconds later, even that entered the wall of wind. A smirking Opher said nothing – he only fell still, lifted his left arm, rolled up the sleeve, and showed her every unreadable word.

 _He's feeding his own magic into it._ Amber acknowledged her senses and tried to take back her pet typhoon, braced, knees bent, both hands on her staff as she mentally fought with her own attack. Sweat dripped freely from every bit of her exposed caramel skin. Her power flowed into the atmosphere, a tidal wave of effort that snatched the air from her lungs. "This wind belongs to me!" she screamed over the freight train of wind in orbit around them. Every muscle in her body wailed with agony – but she managed to slow the gale after endless seconds of bitter, mind-searing concentration. "Gods damn you to hell! It's _mine_!"

Those words finally got a rise out of her mute opponent. "Then have it back, you selfish bitch," he growled.

"What-" She looked up just in time to see a red cloud of powder slam into her face. A freshly infuriated Opher motioned it into her open mouth before she could direct the magic to fight back; it filled her lungs to bursting with powerful tranquilizers and frigid air. Tectonic agony forced her to her knees, unable to exhale or even cough because he kept ramming more air in – her Aura could do nothing but harden her ribs, which only made her lungs suffer even more. Only when she ended up on her back, staff discarded, did the whole thing cease. The tornado departed. The fire was gone. Grimm plummeted from the air like meteors, splattering noisily into black and white plumes of ebony goo and fractured chitin. She coughed and rolled, hand pounded repeatedly against her chest as if trying to restart her breathing. "N… noooo…" was her first slurred protestation.

"You're not even half the warrior she was."

"Why… Hrruugggh…" The world grew dim and blurry – as did Opher's looming form. He stood above her, hands shoved into his pockets. Her Aura did better at resisting the sedative than his did, but he'd injected so much of it into her body that not even the Maiden's might could help Amber fight it all. "Hhhhgh!" she gasped out when he nudged her onto her back again.

"This is what you're doing now? Running mobs in the middle of nowhere and kidnapping people?" His pallid face contorted with bitter disgust. "How dare you."

"Thish… ishn't-" Her addled brain lost its conscious link to the Maiden's power – little spurts of wind and water jumped from her fingers in self-defense, but these did little more than move the brim of his hat and get his clothes wet. "...posshi… posshible…"

Opher's simmering fury boiled over again. He raised his shoe high and stomped on her head. Her Aura's internal protection flavored the sounds of impact with metallic echoes. "Why the fuck did you bring me out here?!" he screamed. She only groaned, so he raised his foot and slammed it down a second time. "Why are you using your gifts for _this_ bullshit?!" No answer, so he thrust his foot into her cheek again, and again, and again, _and again_ until her skull sank into the bare soil.

" _Hnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaagh_!" she groaned as loud as her gasped breaths would let her. Her hands wrapped weakly around his leg to make him stop. While not exactly in pain, this was the first time Amber had met her match since learning how to live up to the mantle – she had no idea how to process the sensation and only wanted it to end.

"You disgust me." A pat at his cargo pants told him items were missing from his pockets. "Where is my stuff?" he growled down at her.

"Hrk…" Amber lost consciousness and her grip on him; she laid still with her arms splayed and his sneaker still jammed into her face.

"Fine. I'll ask your _friends._ " To ensure their compliance, Opher punted her off the ground with a kick, then seized her by the throat to be dragged into the broken city. New Grimm arrived – mostly fledgling Griffons, hodgepodge beasts with the wings and beaks of eagles, but the bodies of lions – in pursuit of her misery. They were unable to see him; since Amber was unconscious and no longer projecting emotion, they wandered about while emitting uncertain growls. One finally caught sight of her and charged. The whole pack came with it, only to be treated as the meaningless inconveniences they were by his magic. He did not even dignify their presence with motions to discharge that power; blue fire annihilated them into vapor at the mere suggestion of his angry thoughts. One city block into Mountain Glenn's corpse, he decided to fully announce his presence. "Don't fucking hide from me!" he shouted, Amber's body suspended above his head by her neck as he walked slowly down the road. "Someone took my shit! Give it back!"

Some noise reached his ears after this. The cocking of weapons, the gentle creak of bowstring being drawn tight, the murmurs of terror, male and female. He kept on walking with the beaten Maiden on display until a smear of red caught his eye, just around the corner of the remains of some kind of market. Out went his hand and the gravity magic needed to snatch Miltia Malachite mid-stride as she tried to flee. He roughly dragged her over to him on invisible chains, waiting for her screams to attract help. She lashed out at him with her claws the moment she got close enough, shrieking with fear. "Let me go! Let me go!" Their edges bounced off of his chest and torso until he suspended her out of stabbing range – so she kicked him instead, lashing her feet against his temples as fast as her muscles would respond to the urge. Repeated attacks on his sub-dermal iron armor only caused _her_ pain, which built up in her feet until she had to cease. "Ow… ow… what the hell…" she whined, legs retracted loosely to her chest.

One twist of his finger turned her around in the air. "The woman that's in charge here has ten fucking seconds to show herself before I use _this_ bitch-" He wiggled Amber's limp form for emphasis. "-to beat this _other_ bitch to death." Now he indicated a sobbing Miltia.

Beatrix appeared almost instantly with Melanie at her side – both came around the brick skeleton of an office block behind him. "Please put my baby girl down!" she pleaded, tears streaming from her blue eyes. "And Miss Grace too! You've made your point!"

"Where is my Scroll, and where is my ID chip?" he asked, his back to her.

"I've got them!" Melanie gasped, fumbling with storage pouches strapped to her thigh. "Just let 'Tia go!"

He flicked Amber away – she ended up halfway through an already somewhat-broken window in the ground floor of the apartment next to him – and showed them his palm. "Hand them over." Seconds later, they were back in his possession, but he kept Miltia as well. "What is it that you people do for her?"

"I, uh, I don't think that's relevant to the-" Beatrix cried out with horror when Opher sent a pulse of electricity through her helpless daughter's body, causing first a scream, then dreadful, uncontrolled convulsions for a few seconds. "Stop! Stop, damn you, we gave you what you wanted!"

"Answer my question before I _actually_ get angry."

Beatrix glanced between him and Amber. "We… we're… I don't think she'd like it if we spilled the beans…" Another jolt of electricity went into Miltia. " _Stop_!" she wailed, dropping to her knees.

"Who are you more afraid of," he began, peering over his shoulder, "her in a little while… or me right now?"

"We feed her information from the outside!" Melanie blurted out. "Gathering intel from villages and expeditions for her. We don't know what she does with it, we swear. We didn't even know she could do… like… whatever the fuck it is we just saw."

"Melanie, don't tell him-!"

"Mom, I really, really don't want to piss this guy off again."

"She's a smart girl." Opher lazily tossed Miltia at her twin, who tried to catch her with a surprised squeak but failed. Both girls ended up on the cracked pavement together. "Gods damn, I missed being mad," he whispered. After a check of his device and chip, both of which appeared to be in good order, he pinned down the trembling Beatrix with a fearsome gaze. "I don't appreciate you threatening my friends. If something happens to them – I don't care what – you're gonna be the first person I talk to about it. And if I can't find you here, I'll start looking. Twenty-four hours a day, eight days a week, four hundred days a year, across the whole fucking planet – I'll never stop. So, if I were you, I'd leave them alone."

Miltia was still too dazed to hold herself up, so her mother did it for her. "Th-that ain't a guarantee I can make. It's her call."

"Then you should advise her against doing anything stupid." He turned on his heel and prepared to walk off. "Don't bother me again." Vibrations in the ground caused him to stop – he, along with all of the Malachites, turned to look together at their source.

"Goliath!" someone in one of the ruined towers yelled. "Incoming!"

The top of a truly gigantic monster came into view over the half-built city wall, trumpeting murderous intent from its long, obsidian trunk – a quadrupedal cataclysm in the shape of an elephant with a white mask and blood-red eyes. Its height rivaled some of the skyscrapers. Panic broke out around them as the gang members in the ruins fled for their lives. "Mom, we… hnnnnh, we gotta go!" Miltia snapped weakly, unable to stand on her wobbly legs.

Opher, hands jammed into his pockets, shuffled past them and toward the monster in total silence. While the Geists with their Petra Gigas puppets were a sight to behold, this thing jutted even higher into the air. Every step it took sank a crater into the ground, shaking the windows in the ruins until some of them cracked or broke out altogether. The sound of footsteps behind him caused him to look over his shoulder. The Malachites were trying to flee with the rest of their gang. "No. You stay there. I want you to see this."

"Are you fucking nuts?!" Melanie screamed at him.

Out came his hands. He crossed his arms over his chest, unable to control the smirk that appeared, then looked up at the Grimm which was now only meters away, ignoring him in favor of the terror it felt elsewhere. "I need to send a message," he whispered.

Bitter wind swept down the streets, forcing Beatrix backward until she stumbled and her daughters had to come back to try and help her. They too were knocked off of their feet – all three tumbled toward Opher, clawing at the ground and screaming bloody murder until the gale dropped off without warning. It left them clustered around his legs, at the center of a peaceful bubble. All around them, however, the atmosphere howled, so fierce that its assault caused some of the wrecked skyscrapers to groan with protest. The Goliath could no longer move forward – it trumpeted its frustration and tried to bash the four of them with its trunk, but lacked the strength to swing down through the air pressure. It slid backward, feet tearing up the pavement.

"Gods above who part the stars…" Beatrix whispered, crouched with her girls, mouth agape.

Debris picked up by the air showed how it swirled in eddies focused on the monster and shoved it toward the city wall until, suddenly, everything fell still. A strange, white fog collected at its feet – which it could no longer lift, as they were frost-bound to the soil. Opher unfurled his arms in one quick motion as the Goliath froze solid, then toppled sideways – pulling up the ground to which it was stuck – and shattered across the street. He took a moment to straighten his hat before looking down at his gobsmacked company. "That, for the record, is how you use the power. She, on the other hand," he said, while motioning to Amber, "hasn't got a fucking clue what she's doing. I'm headed back. Like I said, don't bother me again."

"What, to Vale? That's a hundred kilometers away," Melanie replied while she helped her sister stand. "You'll never make it."

"I retract my statement about you being smart." He bounced once on his feet and sprinted away from them before detaching from the ground, rising like a particularly determined balloon in an arc toward the almost-dead sunset.

As the Malachite gang gathered reluctantly around their leadership, tracking him skyward, they saw something else instead – a gossamer, iridescent sheet of light which spread over part of the forest and the city. It featured bends and waves that moved as they watched, a translucent banner fluttering in the jet stream. "What the hell is that?" one of the men asked.

"Couldn't tell you," Beatrix replied. She tried in vain to brush copious amounts of dust off of her purple dress. "But I bet our Lady knows. Come on, let's get her out of there."

* * *

"Like this?"

Pyrrha glanced over at Jaune, who did his level best to copy her ready stance. Both were crouched down with their respective shields up – though neither had their weapons – in the center of Beacon's combat arena. Opposite them stood Qrow, rubbing the stubble on his chin as he examined Jaune's posture. "Raise your shield a little more," she advised quietly.

He did as told. "Now?" Her nod made him smile. "Okay, Mister Branwen, I think I'm good to go."

"All right." Qrow kicked his broadsword off the floor and into his ready hand, then issued an overhead swing toward Jaune's heater shield. His blade stopped before making contact. "See where the tip of my sword is relative to your, well…"

Harbinger's edge was dangerously close to making relations with his nose. "My face, sir, yeah. I got it. Is my shield not high enough?"

"That's one problem, but not the whole problem. See Pyrrha's shield? It has a convex face. When something hits, it automatically deflects that contact off-center." Qrow retracted his weapon and straightened up. "Lots of Grimm are gonna swipe down at you from above. They catch the flat edge of your shield, they're gonna push it straight down into your feet. Not only does this make you vulnerable, but it also restricts you from being able to attack."

Jaune emitted a long, low, "Oooooooooo," while eyeing his heater shield. "So what's the right way?"

"Show him, Pyrrha."

"Yes, sir." Up went her hoplite shield, over her head and slightly forward, angled such that the side closer to her head was higher than the side pointed at the floor.

Qrow whipped a sword slash down onto it and held firm, pushing against the resistance she offered. "Look close, kid. This naturally puts you into a low center of gravity and makes you harder to move around by a single opponent. And see how much space she has for her other arm to thrust out?"

"Yeah."

"It also lets your whole body absorb the impact so your Aura doesn't complain as much. Spreadin' out the pain, so to speak. Look how hard it is-" He paused to grip his sword with both hands and try to force Pyrrha to one knee, a task which was much more difficult than he expected. "What the hell are you eating, kid, I've never had as much muscle as you do in my friggin' life!"

"I quite enjoy my protein, sir," she said through a tiny grin. Not only did she hold her ground, but she managed to force Harbinger back up slowly.

"All right, all right, stop showin' off." Qrow withdrew the blade again, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a sleeve. "What I was gonna say is that it's harder to get knocked down from vertical attacks in that stance, 'cause both your legs can resist the force."

Jaune was tapping notes into his Scroll. "Right. Leverage."

"You got it, kid." Qrow rotated his shoulder with a smile. "I wanna focus on shield training with you first, that way you can protect yourself out there. Don't try to fight anything solo, you got me?"

"Yeah, like the first trial!" Nora yelled from the bleachers. "When you decided it was a good idea to be Death Stalker bait one too many times!"

"I know, I know," he replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

The bipedal stick of dynamite wasn't alone – both she and Ren were there to offer support, as was Ruby and her entire team, save Weiss, who couldn't be bothered to tag along with her leg still somewhat gimpy. Yang chose to interject with a joke. "You tried to take on a Death Stalker alone? Damn it, there's only room for one blonde badass on this campus!" she yelled through her cupped hands.

"And to whom would you be referring?" a grinning Qrow fired back. "'Cause all I see is a glorified fist-based meat tenderizer."

"Why don't you come up here and kiss my ass, you old geezer?!" Off to Yang's right, Blake loosed a few quiet giggles. Ruby only rolled her eyes.

"Ooo, touchy." Qrow waved her off and got back to work. "All right, now when it comes to horizontal-" Something directly ahead of him, beyond Pyrrha and Jaune, caught his eye. "Uh, can I help you?"

"Hmm?" Pyrrha said. She turned and spotted a visibly distraught Indigo hesitating in the entrance tunnel. "Miss Stahl?"

Those in the bleachers gathered at the railing as Indigo shuffled up to the edge of the raised platform. "Uh, hey…" she mumbled, tugging ceaselessly on her thin ponytail, "This might sound a little weird, but have any of you seen Opher?" After some mumbled confusion, Pyrrha, Yang, and Jaune raised their hands slightly. "Hold on, what? Then where the fuck is he?"

"What's going on?" Ruby called from the bleachers.

She shrugged helplessly. "He never came back to the shop today! I've been calling and messaging him for hours, but nothing. Goodwitch says they scanned him landing with the shipment, then leaving through the south gate, then… then…" Her face twisted with misery. "I don't… I don't understand."

Qrow rubbed at his stubble in thought. "There's nothing near the south gate a courier would be interested in but the warehouse."

"If he left and didn't come back…" Pyrrha's lips pursed with unease. "Why would he do such a thing?"

Indigo's answer was instantaneous. "He wouldn't. Something is really wrong here." She looked over as Ruby hopped the railing and jogged over. "I've… been wandering around campus for an hour because I don't know what the hell to do."

"Hey, I could go with you and do a little sweep around the south gate?" she offered, rocking back and forth on her black boots. "I've got Crescent Rose with me."

"Now wait a second," Qrow said, arms folded. "You know you can't just wander off campus without permission."

"But…" Ruby glanced around as the rest of her friends arrived. She inhaled a breath and stared up at her uncle. "Uncle Qrow, I have something to tell you."

His face softened with worry. "Go ahead, kid."

It took considerable effort to hold her eye contact through the truth. "Opher helped us in the second trial. He killed the Geists. He saved all of our lives." His partially-genuine bewilderment caused her to wave her hands. "Look, man, he asked us not to tell anyone and after what we saw? We didn't wanna make him mad!"

"He fucking _what_?!" a far more surprised Indigo snapped after Ruby fell silent.

"It's… it's a long story..."

"What if he saw something bad going on?" Nora asked the group. "Maybe he got into trouble trying to help someone."

"Anything's possible, I guess," Blake muttered back. "But trouble? The way he fights?"

"The _point_ is that he helped us, and Miss Stahl helped us too, and now they need help and I'm here and I should help them," Ruby blurted out with one breath's worth of air. "So, maybe _you_ could give me permission? If I'm the only one that goes, I'm the only one that gets in trouble. Right?"

"Yeah, fuck that, I'm going too."

"Yang!"

"Okay, take a breath." Qrow rubbed back his spiky hair, staring off in thought. "All right, fine. You and Yang go with her to check things out. If you see _anything_ shady, you call me."

"And me," Pyrrha added. "We'll all come running."

Ruby issued a grateful hug for her uncle and for Pyrrha before nodding at Indigo. "Let's do this." All three moved outside into the dusk, walking quickly away from the arena down one of Beacon's many walkways.

"Whew, getting a little chilly at night now," Yang noted, rubbing her arms. She soaked up the sight of the blanket of stars above them for a moment.

Ruby squinted at her. "Then, I don't know, try wearing pants?"

Indigo was too busy trying to contact her employee again to appreciate their banter. "Gods damn it, where the fuck could you possibly be," she sighed, frustration and worry contorting her features – emotion no amount of measured breathing could control. "This is bad. This is really bad. He wouldn't just—no. He's not like that." She cast glances at the two girls. "What do you mean he helped you before?"

Both sisters stiffened up. "Listen, we don't know why he did it. We don't even know where he came from – he must have been out there following us, I guess, but when we were about to die-"

"Please don't say it like that," Ruby pleaded quietly, her eyes tightly shut.

"-he barged in and saved our lives," Yang concluded. "He joked about being there to help your new favorite customers."

"Why the hell would he…" Her muscular arms suddenly hung limp at her sides. "Oh my gods."

"What?" Ruby looked at her, then down the walkway, then all around in search of the problem.

Mired in thought, Indigo's pace slowed to a crawl. "I… think he wanted to help Pyrrha."

Yang fired a confused look at her sister before asking, "Uh… why?"

Seeing a woman so powerfully-built act so fidgety caused Ruby and Yang more than a little concern, but neither tried to push her as she measured her breaths again. "Before he came to Vale, Opher worked as a Dust surveyor for the SDC. He fell in love with someone else on his crew – a woman named Carmine. And based on what he says, she looks a _lot_ like Pyrrha." She walked faster after this admission. "Carmine and Opher had a child, but… the Grimm attacked during childbirth and she gave herself up so the rest of their crew could save her baby. Opher wasn't there – and given what I know now, if he had been around…"

"Oh. Wow." Ruby looked away so Indigo could wipe her misty eyes in peace. "That, um, that's bad."

Drying those tears required a handkerchief from the pocket of her intense pink and black skirt. "It sucks 'cause he doesn't even have any pictures of her. He lost his old Scroll. All he has is memories. If Pyrrha looks as much like Carmine as he says she does, then I wouldn't put it past him to try and help her. I guess… I guess I would feel the same way. She was the mother of his fucking kid. I'd never get over it."

"Damn." Yang, chest tight with empathy, looked up as they walked past the closed warehouse. "I guess we're almost there. What should we look for?"

"I wouldn't even know where to st-" A chime from Indigo's Scroll brought all three of them to a halt. After checking the message, she bolted away from them toward the gate.

"Whoa?!" Ruby squeaked, using her Semblance to catch up. "What? What happened?" she added between breaths.

"It was him!" It-" A Scroll flashlight in the woods beyond campus caught her eye, then Ruby's too – both shined their own lights back in response. "Hey! Hello?" she called, jumping up and down as Yang slid to a stop beside her.

"Oh, calm down," Opher called back, his voice echoing through the trees. A few moments later, he wandered through the gate and walked up to them – his clothes were not the same ones he'd been wearing when he left Beacon several hours earlier. Gone was his favored ensemble of long-sleeved shirts and cargo pants, replaced by a short-sleeved orange tee and black pants which lacked leg pockets. His original hat and shoes, however, remained. "Whew. Didn't think I'd be here this long-" The rest of his thought was lost to Indigo's tackle-hug. "Ow."

"Where the fuck did you go?!" she yelled, physically lifting him off the ground by his waist and carrying him away from the gate. "You asshole! I've been calling you! Schwarze has been calling you! And wait, why are you wearing different clothes?"

"I know, I'm sorry, I just got back into range," he said, one finger pointed at his Scroll. "And one thing at a time. Put me down, please." He blinked at Yang and Ruby. "Uh, hello, I guess."

Indigo relinquished him to catch her breath, then followed him to the bench where he sat. "Explain," she demanded.

"I guess we're all good then," Yang said, "So, uhhhh… we'll give you guys some space."

One word from Opher brought everything to a halt. "No." After gauging the uncertainty on each of their faces, he added, "Stay. You need to hear this. So does Pyrrha."

"What's going on?" Indigo asked, posture now stiff as a board.

He thumbed over his shoulder at the warehouse. "Someone jumped me in there. Knocked me out with—sleeping powder, I think. I'm not totally sure what it was." When she began to whine like a tea kettle, he pressed a finger to her lips. "There isn't a scratch on me, by the way. You can check all you want once we get home." He continued once his boss fell silent. "They took me to a place called Mountain Glenn."

"Holy shit," Yang blurted out. "Mom used to take missions around there. Lots of expeditions would use it as a temporary hideout." Now it was Ruby's turn to whine briefly. "Shhh. I know," she whispered, seizing her in a hug.

"Mountain Glenn? Fuck me." Indigo's blood felt rather icy; her eyes darted around in search of reasons why someone would kidnap him. "Why—why would anyone… did you make some enemies or something?"

He shrugged. "I was told I know something I'm not supposed to. Three guesses about what that might be."

More uncertain looks were exchanged before Ruby's eyes widened. "Wait, the remote priming thing? But everyone _should_ know that! What the heck?"

"At least one person seems to disagree." Opher hunched forward, arms on his knees, to stare at the walkway. "I was restrained, but not for long. There's an organized gang of people that lives around there now. Fought them off. Then someone else showed up. Someone that can do what I do. Beating her ass took me a little longer."

"Oh my gods-"

"Easy, easy." Opher paused to pat a frantic Indigo on the head for a while. "Anyway, I got out of there, found a village and did some bartering for some new clothes, then came back. How many people know about what I showed you?" he asked Ruby.

She counted that number off with her fingers. "Uhhhh, my team, Pyrrha's team, Coco, Penny and Ciel, and Miss Goodwitch. I dunno if you could figure it out by watching the video Coco recorded. Professor Ozpin probably knows by now too."

"Yeah, he knows. He asked me about…" Gone was his voice. He stared up at the twinkling stars.

_Wait a damn minute._

"Hello?" Yang said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Yooooo? Remnant to Opher?"

Opher had to stand up and walk around to think. Carmine was one of those four. He'd just met the descendant of another. Their power was derived from… he stopped and stared at Beacon Tower. Only two people on this planet could command those Maidens. One only person could issue commands they'd actually listen to: the Aspect of Light. The other man that refused to die.

"Hey, you're making me nervous," Indigo advised from her seat. "More nervous, I guess."

He couldn't reassure her with his brain racing like this. Perhaps his kidnapper was acting alone, but what he knew of the Maidens Four from experience – and Carmine's own stories – didn't jive so well with the loose-cannon concept. They were the Generals of Ozma's ancient armies. They obeyed him nearly without fail – or they _did_ , based on his foggy recollection of the final battles of the war before. Perhaps their loyalty to him had faded even more since the discovery of Dust, as did humanity's and Faunus' knowledge of the truth. "Listen to me," he finally said. "These people threatened you and Schwarze. Was it an empty threat? I don't know. If not, then they must have some kind of help somewhere to make claims like that."

"Pfff, they'd never get close to Vale," Yang said, hands on her hips. "Nobody in their right mind would help them even if they did."

"You're wrong. They do have some help." Opher doffed his hat. "The woman I fought was, for lack of a better term, one of Carmine's sisters. She seems to be in charge of that gang."

"E… excuse me?"

He looked at a dumbstruck Indigo. "Not sisters by blood. Carmine… she's the one that taught me what I know about Dust. She mentioned other women like her. Her 'sisters'. Based on what she told me, they... they didn't really get along."

Ruby waved her hand for attention. "Hooooooold the heck up. Would they have some kinda reason to come after you?"

"This morning I would have said no. Now, I'm not so sure." His eyes remained locked on Beacon Tower. _Ozpin…_ A section of shared name he could brush aside as coincidence, but the way his Aura shrieked in Ozpin's presence was much harder to disregard. Even the timing of events seemed a little off in hindsight. "Huh." On went his hat as he addressed his company. "Let's get outta here. By airship, this time, my story is going to be complicated enough."

Indigo stood, her jaw slackened with surprise. "Whoa, don't you want to talk to the administration first? Someone snatched your ass off of the fucking campus! What if they come back for someone else, like, I dunno, students?"

"They would have before." He looked to Yang and Ruby. "Has anything happened like this since you've been here?"

"What? No way," Yang answered. "We're all armed, we'd all put up a fight. Then again, if they were strong enough to take you, I guess we wouldn't do too well… fuck, we'd sure as hell make a ton of noise, though."

"And I'm really good at screaming," Ruby added with a nod. "Seriously, are we, like, in danger?"

He crossed his arms. "Indigo and Schwarze might be, yes. As for you kids… I don't know. I guess I'd just tell you to keep everything among yourselves for now. If Goodwitch and Ozpin don't tell everyone about what you've learned, you shouldn't either." The fact that their silence on Remnant's voice would indicate a bigger problem was something he kept to himself. He turned to his profusely-sweating boss. "I'm not sure what the three of us are gonna do."

Yang offered the best solution she could think of with a weak shrug. "Call the cops, maybe?"

"It probably wouldn't work," Indigo said while tugging at her blue hair. "They don't have jurisdiction out here. Nobody really does, except the military, and even that's kinda tenuous. The Academies police themselves." A few seconds later, she was at Opher's side. "Actually… wait. It's not gonna help us either. We can't just tell them that you ended up in _Mountain_ _fucking_ _Glenn_ and somehow got back here in a few hours. The fact you came back at all would be hard to believe."

"Yeah." Opher's face darkened with unease. "I'm not really worried about me. I'm worried about all of you. None of you asked for whatever the hell this is."

"Well, they do say that Hunters should expect the unexpected!" Ruby chirped as optimistically as she could manage while rocking on her heels. "But, um, between us, what kind of unexpected are you expecting?"

He couldn't help but snort. "I wish I knew." One more long look at the tower before he started off. "All I'm fairly certain about right now is that I think I just started a fight with someone. Gods only know who it is."


	19. Blackbirds

To say there existed some panic in the Branwen tribe's big top several hours later would have been a tremendous understatement. Amber's motionless body was laid in the pile of cushions Raven used as her bed. The woman herself stood near the low oaken table, hands on her head, as Olivine paced around in the dim fire's glow. Cinder wasn't around; Raven thought it best not to startle Amber with her presence if she happened to wake up.

Not that such a thing seemed likely. "The _whole_ pouch?" she whispered harshly.

Olivine nodded once, hard enough to bounce her wavy green locks. "The whole damn pouch."

She digested this in silence, rubbing hard at her sweaty forehead. "We might be here a while. Vernal didn't mess around with this batch."

"How long?"

"I don't know." She could feel those bronzed eyes locked onto the back of her skull and whirled to face her. "I don't know, Ollie. One gram is enough to deck a full-grown man for four hours. Her pouch holds… what, a hundred grams? More? It might be enough to keep her out for a _month_."

"I'm sure the old woman will be thrilled to hear that." She somehow managed to crack her knuckles through her armored gloves. "Now we've gotta figure out what to do about this guy."

"How could he stand up to one of us in the first place?"

"I…" For this, she had no answers; Olivine looked away toward the collection of fine – if slightly damaged – pottery that Raven had accumulated as tribe leader, then as an assassin and spy of the Aspects. "I have no idea." She opened her Scroll, gazed at a picture Amber had taken of the writing on his arm, then winced visibly as her Maiden shrieked at the words in a language of instinct that sent jolts through her nerves. "Tell me if this tattoo means anything to your Maiden."

"Huh?" Raven took the device and stared at the image for a while. Like Amber, her holy gift dimmed with a sense of dread after about a minute of examination, though her reaction wasn't nearly as visceral as the one Olivine just displayed. "I dunno. I don't think so, but… it bothers her."

She took her Scroll back. "We have a huge problem. Beatrix Malachite told me about 'lights in the sky'. Said that they looked like a rainbow sheet of lace."

Raven had to sit down, roughly, to bear this news. "Seriously?" Another nod from her big sister. "Amber used _that_ much magic and this guy still walks away? Holy hell."

"Yeah. Then she said a Goliath attacked the ruins and he just… took it out. Like nothing." She too sat down, her armor clanking against itself while she came to rest. "One of us has to go tell Salem."

Blood became ice in her veins. "We should do it together. I can leave Vernal and Cinder here to keep an eye on Amber, 'cause I don't think it's a good idea for either of us to deliver this news alone." Out came her Scroll so she could do just that, fingers tapping gently at the translucent screen to summon her highest-ranking subordinates.

"You might have a point." Idle tosses of green hair came and went for an awkward while. "We _have_ to find out who the hell this guy is. The silver-eyed got weaker with time, but… how did this bloodline maintain its power?" Her brow furrowed deeply. "And what makes him invincible?"

Raven stopped typing and snapped a glance over at her. "Excuse me? Invincible?"

"Must be his Semblance. The Malachite gang said he was literally bulletproof – they shot at him while he was fighting Amber, but it didn't do anything. Maybe that's why she had so much trouble. He's like a super-powered Jade Tock," she explained quietly. "Here's a question: how the hell are we going to interrogate him if we can't hold him down?"

"Look, I love Amber, but she's not the best fighter in the world. We can handle it." Raven hauled herself to her feet. "They're on the way. How are we getting there, flight or portal?"

"We'll fly. Give ourselves some time to prepare." Olivine glanced back as Vernal arrived. "Hey, hey, it's Vernie."

A bit of snide color dripped into her dusky voice. "Miss Duprix. What cat dragged you in here?" She laughed when an armored glove went up to point at Raven. "Seems about right. What's the problem?" No answer was necessary; her icy blue eyes landed on Amber's unconscious form almost immediately. "Oh my gods, what happened to her?"

"Your sedative powder worked _very_ well." Raven grinned a bit at the surprised look she got next. "Nah, not your fault, but beyond that you don't need to know. Olivine and I have to make a trip. I want you and Cinder to keep an eye on Amber while we're gone." Cinder's arrival caused her to glance over. "Good, there she is."

"Ah, Lady Duprix." A respectful nod. "I hear I'm babysitting." As ever, she moved on silent footsteps, a rainbow of embroidered Dust glittering all over her chest and sleeves. She also looked at Amber, but unlike Vernal, the sight drew no emotion. "Should I even ask?"

"Later." Raven nodded at her big sister. "Let's get a move on. We'll be back… directly, I guess. Not sure how long this is gonna take."

They watched the two Maidens depart – afterward, Vernal eyed Cinder until she got her attention and smirked. "So, fancy another game of chess?"

Too much of her mind was devoted to figuring out the situation to reply quickly. A few seconds passed before she bothered with eye contact. "If you insist on continuing your losing streak, I am happy to oblige." While she moved to retrieve the chess set, Cinder took a better look at Amber, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. She nudged her with the toe of her black shoe, got no response, and stared quietly.

Vernal caught her in the act and walked over to investigate. "What are you doing?"

One yellow eye remained locked on Amber's motionless form. "Just wondering what happened," she muttered, imagining a different Maiden in Amber's place.

"Oh, yeah. That makes two of us." Her attentions shifted toward a small wooden storage cabinet tucked away in the rear of the tent; some rummaging in its drawers eventually produced a polished, dark wood case. "Ah, here we go." She looked back to see Cinder already seated at the low table. "White or black?"

"I don't care."

"Fine, I'll flip a Lien coin for it." Setting up the board came first. "Wonder when you guys are gonna clue me in on whatever the hell it is you have going on."

Cinder watched her flip that coin in silence, then gathered up the white pieces when Vernal groaned her disappointment at the result. "It isn't necessary for you to know. The particulars would go over your head regardless." She allowed herself a tiny grin. "Much like this game. Shall we begin?"

* * *

Salem stroked lightly at her alabaster chin while contemplating the shattered Moon outside one of the mansion's windows. She wasn't alone in her chamber; joining her were two men, one a rather slender fellow with light brown skin, dark hair, and a styled mustache, dressed in a gray, high-collar jacket with matching pants. Underneath the top was a purple vest; under that was a yellow shirt and a thin black tie. He was seated. The other man chose to stand and pace – a titanic individual who rivaled Olivine in height and build alike, with a similar skin tone and hair color to the first man, though he lacked the graying strands on the sides of his head. He also lacked a mustache of any sort, and instead sported a neat beard that clung to his jawline. His simple outfit consisted of a two-tone green coat, cinched at his waist by a thick belt, over a black shirt and pants. His heavy boots emitted solid _thunks_ even when he walked gently.

"Arthur, wasn't it?" she asked over her right shoulder.

"Yes, madam," he confirmed politely. "Or Doctor. Whichever suits you."

"Hazel tells me you were exiled from Atlas…" The timing evaded her mind. She looked to the giant for details. "When, exactly?"

Arthur Watts answered for him. "Five years ago, madam."

"Hmm." A squint passed before she continued. "And I understand it is your technological knowledge which helped the minor settlements of Solitas to resist Grimm so effectively."

He lounged back as far as he could in the high-backed stone chair. "I can't take all the credit. Consider it a joint effort between my talent and some discarded Atlesian military equipment. If you're looking for an apology – well, I can't say I ever expected to meet the mother of Grimm, but here we are, I suppose."

She returned to her own seat while donning a slightly wry smile. "An apology? No. And I am not the mother of Grimm." Her focus went to the other man again. "Why bring him directly to me?"

Hazel grasped the back of the chair instead of sitting – his frame wouldn't fit – and let out a sigh before responding. "I know we're all workin' on the Atlas problem right now, ma'am, and he was a military scientist before he got booted out. Might be worth havin' his perspective on the issue. Before you ask, I've seen his name and face in Lady Branwen's documents. I can vouch for his story."

Her red eyes widened a bit. "Ah. Then you were right to introduce us. I have many questions for you." Before she could begin to ask them, however, a presence in the entrance stole her thoughts. It was Raven. A second later, Olivine peeked in as well. Salem stood up with a bright smile. "Olivine! Raven! What a lovely surprise. Come in! Come meet our new friend." Seeing their grim expressions killed her joy. "You look awfully ill about something."

Olivine had to duck to get into the room after Raven entered. She stared at Hazel as he bowed respectfully to both Maidens, but said nothing to him, nor to the stranger, and spoke directly to Salem. "We need to talk."

"Very well." A wave of her hand went to Hazel and Arthur. "If you'll excuse us, gentlemen."

"Yes, ma'am." Hazel led the way past the two silent Maidens and through the entrance before turning left to go down the corridor.

Neither of them felt like speaking even after their privacy was assured; it took the Aspect herself to get the conversation going. "Well?" she asked, sitting back down in her modest throne, "Why the sour faces, children?"

"Amber got into a fight."

Salem's face twisted slightly as she looked toward Olivine. "And…?" she urged again, more confused about their hesitance than harboring any significant worry about her daughter.

A profusely-sweating Raven chose to conclude the thought herself. "She… uh, she lost. Pretty badly."

Her chest visibly expanded, though no breath entered her parted lips. The wide-eyed emotion on her white face was beyond their ability to deduce – she sat this way for several seconds until a crack formed loudly in one of the windows behind her. They jumped with surprise. She did not. " _What_?" finally escaped into the dead air.

Beads of sweat gathered on Olivine's forehead as well. "She's not dead, but she is out cold. I evacuated her to Raven's tribe. We, uh… we're not sure when she'll wake up."

Salem rose slowly, hands braced on the tabletop in front of her, eyes drilling frigid holes into her children. "Give me the entire story," she spat as another crack appeared in a different window. " _And be quick about it_ _._ "

"Uh…" Despite the little pricks of pain from detached strands it caused her, Olivine ran an armored glove over her hair. Eye contact with the Aspect was impossible. "Ozpin finally arranged a meeting with the guy. The one whose picture Amber showed you. The Opher dude. Eh, well, now that I think about it, I think the old man might have panicked, 'cause-"

"Why would he panic?" Salem demanded. A third crack in yet another window noisily sprang into existence.

Olivine found herself wholly unable to stand still, her weight shifting from foot to foot. "You'd—you'd have to ask him. All I know is he wanted Raven's girl to use her Semblance on him right afterward so Amber could kidnap him and take him to Mountain Glenn. For interrogation. It… it, uh, didn't work. The Malachite gang said it went sideways in a damn hurry. He, well, he kinda beat her ass." Both Maidens flinched as a full pane of glass abruptly blew out. Its shards cascaded across the floor. "Ma'am, calm down. Amber's just asleep right now."

Through the new opening came waves of howling from newly-forged Grimm in response to their lady's emotion. "Calm down?" she replied. The mansion around them creaked under the unseen weight of her expressionless rage. "From the woodwork emerges a man that can withstand the Maiden's might, about which we know _nothing_ , and now he's put one of my children into what would appear to my old eyes to be a coma, even if you won't call it such out loud? Calm down? I want this bastard's spine mounted to the wall behind me! Now!"

A fourth crack in the windows appeared. Olivine, thanks to her armor, quite literally rattled as her body shook with nervousness. "You know what Ozpin is gonna say, mom. We have to figure out if he's the only one. There's so much we don't know-"

"I have lost two children in ten years and I will not see more of them die to some stranger's hand!" Salem finally snapped at last, the purple walls and ceiling rippled against her wrath. "Ozma's lust for behind-the-scenes machinations is beginning to wear on my patience. We have eternity to do a postmortem. Your lives are clearly at risk right now!" Her gleaming red eyes snapped to Raven, who by this point had backed all the way up to the wall next to the entrance. "Hear me, child. This is a direct order. You will make whatever arrangements are required to portal him to the empty land. The Grimm will do the rest. Do _not_ engage him yourself." She looked back to Olivine just in time to see her mouth open for a rebuttal. "No. I will not hear any objections from Ozma. Not this time."

"Guess I should get ready to fly north, then," Olivine muttered to herself. Figuring the conversation was over, she turned to leave. Raven fell in behind her.

"I'm not done, children."

Raven emitted a long, uneasy groan as she spun back around. "This can't be good."

"Bring me young Cinder. It's time." Salem settled weakly back into her seat; on the way, a lethargic snap of ivory fingers repaired the damage to the windows. Olivine danced a bit to avoid flying shards of glass. After this, she rested her elbows on the table and hid her eyes with steepled fingers. All anger was gone, replaced by bitter anguish that wilted her slender form. "We need a Summer Maiden to help fight whatever battle this man is the harbinger of – and if Lapis is going to die, it's my duty to send her on as peacefully as I can. There is no point in prolonging her agony."

"But…"

Salem cast one eye at Raven through her pale digits. "When Amber is well, I want all three of you here to see her off. I don't know exactly when. I'll…" Another breath that never was tried to enter her fossilized lungs. "I'll need time to prepare the both of us."

"Yeah." She watched Olivine clank over and pat Salem on the shoulder. "Listen, we're gonna need to do a few things to arrange the murder shuffle, so-"

"I understand. Just make sure it gets done promptly." A weak motion went toward the doorway. "If Amber is awake when you return, please break the news about Lapis to her as gently as you can."

"I'll do it," Olivine assured her quietly – after this, she strode toward the exit. "Come on, mama bird, we got work to do."

* * *

Dawn's arrival was still some time away for Vale as a perturbed Opher shuffled his way along the sidewalk on approach to Diamond Dust. Much of the city remained in bed – his decision to get such an early start was less work-related than an attempt to give his two friends some space. Last night had not gone well, exacerbated by his unwillingness to be chatty about being kidnapped. "Man," he sighed while coming to a halt at the front door of the shop. "I already hate this week." When he moved to unlock it, however, he found the door already open. Vigilance swept away his melancholy. In he walked, one step at a time, eyes nailed to the open storage room entrance and ready to vaporize whoever had broken in. "I'm not in the mood for this, whoever you are!" he called.

Schwarze leaned into view from around the door frame, eyes closed and smiling. Her black hair swayed for a moment – the quality of the braiding was notably tighter and more precise than usual. "Don't shoot, cutie!" she said before stepping out. Her attire, while containing a skirt and blouse, also featured a black, pinstriped blazer and a level of formality he never saw from the outfits she wore at the pub. "It's just me."

Opher cocked his head. "How did you-"

"We have a shared set of keys. Apartments and businesses. Just in case," she said with an amused smile.

"Oh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Based on the past few days, keys aren't the only thing you two share," he noted without missing a beat. "The way you're dressed, though, I doubt you're here for more pillow talk. What's going on?"

Blushing joined her grin, but both it and her smile departed quickly. After a moment, she ended up behind the register, where they eyed each other across the glass counter. Wariness lit up her icy blue orbs. "You really didn't have much to say last night."

"I don't know what I should and shouldn't tell you yet." Opher broke off the staring contest and ducked into the storage room to flip on the lights, both there and in the main area. "Really, though, what's with the outfit? You're not usually this formal."

"Hmm. I have things to do in the Government District today with Indigo – which is why she asked you to run the shop for a few hours," she explained, arms crossed under her ample bust. Her gaze remained on him as he shuffled around. "At least, I suppose that's still what she wants. Cutie—ehm, Opher, I think it's time the three of us part ways."

Her words stopped him mid-turn as he prepared to walk away to start checking inventory. " _What_?" he snapped – an act he regretted immediately after her shoulders tensed. "Sorry. Are you ditching me? We just barely got to know each other, if you know what I mean."

"Erm, well…" Her cheeks reddened. "I won't say that last weekend wasn't fun – very fun – but… I have to admit, part of it was an attempt to make some good memories in case we were about to get exiled. You know. Going out with a bang?"

He snorted at this. "I appreciate the wordplay," he admitted, though like her, his amusement vaporized in an instant. "But I wasn't about to let anyone go anywhere." When their gazes met again, both held an equal amount of iron. "Well, now you have me by myself, so let's hear it," he said, arms crossed.

Schwarze chose to confront him face-to-face and eye-to-eye, thanks to the extra height added by her shiny black heels. "Beacon has been messaging her all night because _you_ won't pick up the Scroll. Why not? You see, I'm trying to figure out what happened in your past that would warrant a _kidnapping attempt from a Hunter Academy_!" she said, voice and face growing angrier as her rant snowballed. "Because as far as I am aware, and granted, it has been some time since I was out on the frontier, people don't generally mess with the professions that help keep humanity alive. Even the criminals have a code of honor. Surveyors, couriers, doctors – they're all left alone. This? This is a reaction. I want to know to what."

"So do I."

She bared teeth at him, mistaking his genuine ignorance for sarcasm. "The time for humor has passed, Opher!"

Eyes lidded, he stared at her from under the brim of his hat and clarified what he meant with toneless, devastating honesty. "I'm not being funny. I came here with the assumption that all my potential enemies were dead by now."

Surprise drove her backwards one step, then two. Her silent hunt for a reply took several moments. "What do you mean by that?" was the best she could come up with.

"You're not stupid, Schwarze." Opher broke away fully and leaned on the wall next to the storage room door. "My hands aren't exactly clean. Hell, just before I got to Vale, three people tried to rob me. Let's just say it didn't go very well for them."

Her gaze hardened even further. "What did you do? I want to hear you say it."

"I set two of them on fire and impaled the last with her own swords," he answered without hesitation. The way Schwarze's expression changed left him curious. "What?"

"Gods… she was right, wasn't she?" she muttered to herself. Once more, she put the glass counter between them, carefully eyeballing him the whole way. "How many times have you had to… well, you know?" she asked while returning her braided hair to its preferred over-the-shoulder position. "Was your crew ever attacked?" A fat handful of quiet seconds passed without any response. "Opher..."

He placed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "There was no crew." When they opened again, a stunned Schwarze was standing next to him. "I never worked for the SDC. I was never a surveyor."

"Then your shit was fake." Indigo shuffled into view from the storage room, dressed in a muted, dark-colored skirt suit much like her best friend. She looked almost ill, with sunken eyes and a noticeable dullness in her cheeks. "And when that detective tried to exile you, she shot you, it didn't work, and you made a deal with her."

A long, quiet breath left Opher's nostrils. "Not exactly. I shot myself to make the point that I wasn't going to be forced out." He watched as Schwarze took Indigo by the hand and led her away from him.

"We can't be associated with you anymore. If-" She fell silent and glanced down at Indigo. "He lied to us. Should we even bother?"

"I mean… he did save my ass. And then, well, yeah, Samedi, Diluain and Dimanch happened too. Shit." Once she realized that this wasn't going to be a clean break no matter what they said to him, she rubbed at her eyebrow scar in order to help herself think. "Is _anything_ true about the story you've given us?"

"Carmine and my daughter. The circumstances aren't exactly what I outlined, but… yeah."

Words evaded everyone for a while until a grumpy Schwarze chimed in again. "Yes, well, süßer, we're sorry about them... but right now, you're putting us in danger. I'm afraid this has to be goodbye."

"You could at least explain why you think so."

Indigo answered when her friend would not, almost without any reluctance. "'Cause of the way we left the Army," she said with a shrug. "It was pretty messy."

"Indy! No!"

That arm-flailing concern went ignored. She approached Opher, an uneasy scowl across her face. "You're not the only one living here on – shaky terms, I guess? We had to make a deal ourselves and I don't know what _this_ -" she paused to wave between him and herself," -is gonna do to that arrangement. Technically, because of our MOS, we're not even supposed to be here at all. This passport shit of yours? Man. We're gonna be fucked if anyone finds out. We have enough problems on our plates."

"Too bad, because I'm not saying goodbye." He shed his hat and tossed it onto the counter. "If these people are serious about making an attempt on your lives and if the woman I fought is the one who shows up? I'm the only one that can stop her."

"Oh, to hell with you!" Schwarze growled. "We are _more_ than capable of protecting ourselves from-" She fell silent when Opher pointed at her, not because of the gesture, but because he'd just snatched the air out of her lungs with a bit of wind Dust. Once Indigo put two and two together, she charged him with an angry growl and a cocked-back fist. He stalled out her movement with a precise discharge of gravity Dust that left her frozen mid-stride. The demonstration ended nearly as soon as it started.

"I'm not telling you that you're defenseless, but I did technically just defeat both of you in less than two seconds with Dust that you can't even see me use," he stated over Schwarze's coughing. "Imagine what _they_ can do." After a moment, he walked them all back together with gentle hands on shoulders while Indigo tried to reestablish control over her stunned limbs. "Sorry. You might do well with guns for a while, but it's delaying the inevitable. These people don't fight like Hunters _or_ soldiers."

"That was…" Schwarze wheezed at him, rubbing her throat.

"Fuckin' scary, holy shit," Indigo concluded, knees shaking. "I swear to the gods, if you ever do that again-"

"Yeah, yeah, feel free to punch me. Just don't complain when you break your fingers." He departed and sat on the edge of the counter, stooped with ancient regret. "Carmine died because I wasn't there when I should have been. That part is true. Someone took my daughter when I tried to go find her." Only now did he try to meet their eyes. "You… you're the first people I've bothered to get close to since all of it happened." Both women were engaged in breathing exercises now, so he fell silent to let them gather themselves.

"And, again, I'm sorry about all of that… but we don't need you to protect us," Schwarze asserted after a while. "We'll just carry again for a while. Even if they somehow have a Semblance like yours, it'll run out _eventually_. Especially against bullets."

He shook his head at this, addressing his retort not to her, but to his boss. "Indigo, you saw me fight the Grimm. Do you remember what I did?"

"You-" She had to reach for the thought. "That ring of fire you made dissolved them. You moved your arms… they just flew."

"And how many of them were there?"

A wispy "Uhhhh…" slipped out as Indigo dug through those prickly memories. "Like, I don't know. Dozens. Big ones. A Death Stalker?" Her eyes became glassy. "You jumped. Wait… you just… flicked fire at them without even knowing where they were."

"Yeah." Opher smoothed back his hair and smirked weakly at a confused Schwarze. "Remember how I said that Carmine taught me how to use Dust the way I do? She taught me how to fight, too. You wouldn't even have a chance to draw your weapons if one of her sisters wants you dead."

"Gods." Indigo looked up at her antsy friend. "Um…"

"So, as I said, I'm not going anywhere. Not until I get a handle on what's happening."

She spent a while scratching at the scar through her eyebrow again. A few moments later, she replied, "I don't want to be a part of whatever the fuck this is. Schwarze doesn't either."

"It's too late for that." He looked up and sighed at the ceiling. "She knows about you. We're stuck with each other. Absence cost me Carmine and my daughter – that isn't going to happen again. I'd rather burn this Kingdom to the ground."

"I never would have pegged you for melodrama," Schwarze muttered, retying some of her fancy braid. A sudden staring match with Opher stayed her hands. "What?"

The wry smile belied just how much anguish boiled in his chest. "If it never gets past melodrama, drinks are on me for the next year. Listen, if you're worried about my passport problem, someone's already working on it. She probably won't be too pleased I've let you in on the whole thing, but…" He produced his Scroll, flicked it open, tapped a few times at the screen, then tossed it to Indigo. "Read that."

"Huh?" She did as asked, skimming over a whole chain of messages between Winter and Opher, though the former's name was not visible – it was replaced by her Scroll number. "What the hell. Schwarze, look."

The last message caught her eye. "'The replacement is done. Three days maximum.' Replacement… passport?"

"More than that. This is an officer in the Regular Army. Apparently her buddies in Atlas are giving me a fresh history."

Indigo threw him back his Scroll. "Why would they do that?"

"Because they want my help."

Schwarze crossed her arms again, eyeing him suspiciously. "With _what_?"

"I don't exactly know, but we can ask her when we get home. She lives in our apartment building." He spent a moment putting the device away. "So, business as usual? I know the past few days have been a wild ride in more ways than one, but I think we're right back to where we started." Quiet, skeptical mumbling from both women caused a smirk. "I trusted you enough to tell you about my passport, so if you think I'm a threat, you've got me by the nuts now, right?"

"That is true…" Indigo agreed at length. "Then again, I don't know what to believe anymore. How long were you in the service?"

"I joined up at 18. The Carmine thing was the last straw, so… six years, just about."

Schwarze waved one hand for attention. "What was your MOS, then? I find it hard to believe you were really infantry, there isn't a scar on you anywhere."

"I just picked fights with easy opponents," he retorted with a grin. It didn't last long. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you the whole story. What about you guys? You don't have many scars either. What did you do?"

"If you're not talking, neither am I." Indigo rubbed her eyes firmly. "Fuck me, man. Look, just… just mind the store until we get back, I guess. I've got enough of a problem trying to figure out how I'm going to explain how I got back after the airship thing, because _someone_ has to know about the crash by now. What the hell am I supposed to say about this bullshit?"

Opher's face drooped apologetically. "Oh, yeah, that. I'm not sure what to tell you there. In hindsight, I may have overreacted a little bit."

"It's, I don't know, whatever. We were both running on adrenaline."

"I know!" Schwarze's cheerfulness caused both of them to look at her with various levels of confusion. "If anyone asks you about Fraidich night..." She pointed at Opher. "Then direct them to cutie for answers. Let him take the spotlight off of you."

"Ehhhh…" He rubbed at his chin in thought. "You know what? That's probably fair. If anyone tries to kick any of us out of Vale, though, we're going to have a problem."

"Don't do to the cops what you did to the Grimm," Indigo warned him as she turned to Schwarze. "Yo, let's stop by the pharmacy on the way. My fuckin' head hurts." She snapped a wave at Opher and led her taller friend out the door. "And talk to Beacon, you asshole," she added just before leaving, "before they wreck my voicemail."

"Fine." With some time before the store officially opened its doors, he flicked open his Scroll one more time and stared at the screen while mentally digging for what he might actually say to the administration.

 _He's coming_. _Someone else too._

Opher looked toward the back of the shop, which faced east, as his magical radar focused on an approaching twinge. It never increased beyond a vague flicker even as it closed the distance, but its flavor told him who bore it long before the sensation came to a stop outside the shop's rear exit. A second spark, just like Qrow's came to rest above him, seemingly perched on the edge of the roof out of sight. "Huh." After putting his hat back on, he walked into the storage room but hesitated before opening the door. "Two spies?" he wondered out loud. Something didn't sit right in his stomach about it; he took a few small Dust crystals of various colors, placed them into the pockets of his cargo pants, then proceeded to open the door. Sure enough, a crow hopped about on the stoop. "Oh, good," he mumbled caustically, choosing not to acknowledge the other presence for now, "I've traded a pointless Scroll conversation for a pointless face-to-face conversation."

Qrow Branwen unfurled his human form in a dim flash of light – and a few detached feathers – before stretching his arms with an uncouth yawn. Harbinger was strapped neatly in a black leather sheath on his back, under the ruined old cloak. "If you'd done either one of those earlier, I'd still be in bed sleepin'." The two men eyed each other in silence. "You had a rough day yesterday."

He crossed his arms. "I really didn't." Qrow's visage seemed off to him; it wasn't just irritation or sleepiness. "You look… disappointed."

Back and forth Qrow paced in front of the stoop, hunched forward slightly and hands driven in his pockets. "Oh yeah? You had my nieces in a tizzy last night and by the time I went lookin' for you to get the story, you were halfway back to Vale without saying a word to anyone in Beacon Tower. What the hell did you expect? Makin' me fly out here at ass o'clock in the morning because you're not capable of filing a report. You bet I'm _disappointed_."

"Uh huh." Opher turned his back on him and re-entered the storage room. "Well, you can go ahead and fly back, because there's nothing any of you can do about my situation. Actually, the less you know, the better."

The old Huntsman followed him in. "Right, and show up empty-handed? I'm not in the mood to get chewed out by Glynda for two hours. We've got a lot of questions for you. Aren't many folks I can think of with the stones to snatch someone off an Academy campus."

"I literally just had this conversation not ten minutes ago." A flick of the wrist sent Qrow stumbling backward out the door in the clutches of a wind Dust discharge. "And I cared way more about the first version than I do this one. Get lost."

Once he caught himself, he sighed out a "Fine, guess we're doing this the hard way," and waved up toward the roof.

"We're not doing it _any_ way," Opher corrected while looking back over his shoulder, just in time to see another bird drop down and inflate into Raven. She wore a Grimm-themed white and red mask along with her usual partially-armored ensemble. In an instant, a huge red blade was in her hand, but she didn't raise it at him – a slash went in the opposite direction instead which tore a red gash into the air. As he watched, it whirled into an oval smear, then stretched open into a portal. Despite not seeing her face, their matching red and black color motif tipped him off to a possible relationship between the two. "Friend of yours?" he asked. "I mean, you share the same magic."

"Shut up," Raven demanded, voice altered slightly by the mask. "You're coming with me."

"I have a shop to run today, so no."

"Listen, she ain't got the same sense of humor I do," Qrow warned. "You better do as she asks."

His biggest concern was making sure any potential fight didn't cause damage to Indigo's shop, so he stepped back out and shut the door behind him. "Or what?"

"I'll kill them," she stated evenly. "I know where they are, and I know where they're going."

Seconds passed as Opher digested the confrontation. While he had no worries about losing a scuffle – despite not knowing whether or not the transformation power was the only magic these people had at their disposal – he was reluctant to wage any war in the middle of Vale, where chaos would surely follow. He was also unwilling to test her challenge about the safety of Indigo and Schwarze without more details, but on this front, he had a different plan. "So you want me to walk into that thing and that's it?"

Raven nodded once, the feathered headdress over her black hair rustling in the breeze. "More or less. Just a few steps forward and their day goes on like nothing ever happened."

One shrug later, Opher split the Branwens on his way into the portal. "I have to say, though," he began as they fell in beside each other behind him to make sure he complied, "I _hate_ traveling alone."

A clipped "What?" from Qrow was all the vocal protest either Branwen could manage before a searing discharge of gravity magic overwhelmed their senses and he ripped them clean off the pavement. All three went flying into Raven's portal, along with some little chunks of asphalt, less than a second later. He could see them screaming in the crimson void, but the noise was lost; only the whispering reached Opher's ears, although it fell silent in whichever direction he looked. Unlike Emerald, they tumbled through the space between until another oval tear sucked them in and deposited them into the middle of a forest full of tall, sprawling broad-leafed trees. Their foliage was not green, but a pleasant candy apple red, as was the tall, thin grass which dominated the undergrowth. The height of the sun in the sky told him that he'd ended up a considerable distance to the west. The color of the trees narrowed down the list of possible locations drastically.

"Huh…" Opher muttered, taking a few steps away from the fading portal as Qrow and Raven came to their senses. "Nice to see this place is still around." He glanced to his right just in time to see a startled Vernal stand up in response to their presence. In her hands were two short, double-barreled guns with huge circular trigger guards, to which a pair of blades were attached that curved over and under the firearms.

"Uh, ma'am?" she called to her leader, aiming at Opher's head when he took a step toward her. "Don't even think about it!"

"Stand down!" Raven tapped the power of the Maiden within in preparation to fight. "I should have known I'd have to get my hands dirty…"

Qrow, Harbinger at the ready, assumed a martial stance beside his sister. "I ain't supposed to be here," he whispered.

"Not a big deal. I'll just bounce you and Vernal to Amber," she replied quietly. The fact that Opher had yet to turn and face them left her a little uneasy. "Once I knock him out, I'll follow."

Opher finally cast lusterless green eyes toward his masked opponent, tasting the magical charge he felt emanating from her. "Lemongrass. Cinnamon. The air after a thunderstorm." He paused to watch Vernal skitter over to join her leader. A whispered "I never thought I'd see the day where I'd have to fight people like you again," came afterward.

"We don't appreciate what you've done." Raven drew the red blade from its sheath and pointed it toward him as the wind blew through the trees. A distant noise, more akin to the sliding of rocks down a mountainside than the flapping wings of the beasts she knew were coming, told her how little time she had to execute her plan. One twirling slash tore another portal into the muggy air. "Go! Now!"

"I kinda figured you'd be working together." They bolted for the gap, but Opher snapped his arm out and yanked them away with another tsunami of gravity that sent both bouncing roughly off nearby tree trunks and leaving them in stunned heaps on the ground. Raven attacked even as her brother and Vernal were in the air, but a wall of ice deflected the inferno that erupted from her palms. He busted through it and drove his fist into her mask; it shattered instantly, white and red shards scattered everywhere as his knuckles slammed into her nose. He watched her stumble backwards until she steadied herself with protrusions of soil that grabbed her boots. "You threaten to kill my friends and you think I'm just gonna let yours go? Are you stupid?"

"Eye for an eye? I guess I can respect that." One mighty clap of her hands brought two massive chunks of earth together that crushed Opher between them. She snatched her sword off the grass and dashed forward to impale her red saber into the resulting mound – a few seconds later, Qrow dashed in, driving Harbinger's edge into it as well. Vernal arrived shortly afterward to add her curved blades to the effort.

Qrow withdrew his sword and stiffened up when how saw how much blood _wasn't_ on it. "Ah, hell, I think we missed."

A breathless Vernal stepped away from the mound. "Still a win so long as he's stuck-" Words failed when she saw him standing between them and the portal. "He's… not stuck."

Something on his Scroll was more important than any of them. "I don't have a lot of time to waste, so come on. Let me have it. All of it. Right now," he demanded while putting the device away.

Raven was the first to deliver, sheathing her sword and unleashing a torrent of red flames from her hands. "If you want something done right..." she growled over the shriek of fire. Qrow and Vernal, dissuaded by the heat, were unable to attack him at the same time and opted to watch her back instead. As the eruption continued, it set fire to the grass – she increased her output, both in quantity and intensity, turning it into a constant pillar of yellow flames that vaporized whatever trees and plant life it contacted. Despite this display, she couldn't help but feel her Maiden was holding something back. This nagging sensation turned to anger when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm busy, damn it!" she snapped, looking back… at Opher. A search for her companions revealed Qrow slumped against a tree, while Vernal charged in from behind to protect her leader. "What the-"

He smiled at her open-mouthed horror, unmoved by the fact that Vernal's blades were lashing down at his back. Redirection of his Aura grabbed the metal with electromagnetism and held fast, leaving her unable to withdraw her weapons. He was entirely untouched; Amber's onslaught at least damaged his clothes, but Raven's attack failed to singe even his hat.

"What the hell is this?!" Vernal screamed between grunts of effort. "They're stuck in… in... nothing!" She even jumped and drove her feet into his spine for extra leverage. "Let go!"

"Nah." Sparks cascaded from his throat as Raven drew her saber across it, once, then twice, with no effect beyond splitting the skin open for a second. Both cuts failed to draw blood. "Gods… you're even more useless than the girl in the green cloak." This realization finally put some emotion on his face. "Wait."

Raven stepped back, staring helplessly, until her anger bubbled up again. She snapped her eyes to Vernal. "Move, damn it!"

Opher's eyes became glassy with thought. "She was afraid of you once," he mumbled to himself as one woman retreated out of the way and the other charged. "But now you're…" In came her blade again – this time he chose to catch it and hold it, forcing her to stand in front of him, if only for a moment. "What happened to-"

A clap of thunder cut him short as Raven thrust tongues of lightning toward his rib cage. These were redirected by bored flicks of his fingers and arced across the prominence of his Aura. One of them struck Vernal and sent her flying. "No!" she squealed, breaking off the attack and letting him keep her sword. Through some miracle, her portal had remained open, and now she had only one plan: throw Qrow and Vernal into it and leave. He was easy enough to grab with an outstretched arm and some gravity magic of her own. Vernal ended up much further away and she needed to close the distance to ensure her safe retrieval.

That delay cost them both. Opher grabbed her first, drawing her to him at high speed like a yo-yo on the rebound. One shock knocked her unconscious, allowing him to hold her by the throat. The red saber flew back into her leader's hands the moment he lost interest and discarded it. "I don't understand," he mumbled to his captive. "Her magic seems so _dim._ " Genuine confusion clouded his gaze when he met Raven's angry red eyes again.

"Put her down!" she warned, pointing her saber at him. The approaching beats of massive wings weren't lost on her ears – time was almost up.

"Why?" He glanced over when Vernal suddenly tensed up; she was awake again.

She quickly slapped a handful of the red powder into his face, then drove a kick into his torso to try and escape. "Let… let me…" she gurgled through his choke, "Let…" The wind blew her sedative away harmlessly, taking her ability to speak with it.

The silent terror on her face put a little smile on his. "What is it they say about fooling people twice?" He could see the source of the noise on the western horizon now, but at this distance they were merely gigantic black smears in the blue sky. "I'm feeling generous," he told Raven, stalking forward with a writhing, desperate Vernal in his left hand, still kicking him in the stomach when she could find the breath. "So here's your _trash_!"

The woman became a cannon shell, propelled by annoyance and wind Dust into a startled Raven's arms. Both women bounced along the grass, grunting or squeaking in agony until their travel was stopped by the stout trunk of an old tree. "Unnnnh," she groaned while gently removing Vernal from her lap. "What the hell is happening right now..."

Before she could even stand up and try to recall her lost sword, Opher was on the approach, still thinking about the state of her magic under his breath. "There's no way Carmine would have run from little girls like you," he said lowly, comparing Amber and Raven's power to the distant recollection of the first time he challenged his lost, redheaded love. "Then why can't you hurt me?" His eyes widened. "Unless…" After all, he was old enough to have seen history itself die – the icon in Beacon's metal chapel was proof of that. Could their holy gift be crawling into that same grave? Were they losing their power? The concept brought him to a halt, mouth ajar with horror. Raven flung more bolts of lightning as he hesitated, but a few graceful motions and twirling on his feet contorted the bolts around his body. Like Amber's wind, they became his; he chose to launch them at Vernal, forcing Raven to cover her and absorb the hit with a shriek of agony. "If it's dying… then… then why are you using it for..."

Tears, forced out by the nuclear anger rising in his chest, fell down his cheeks as he rushed forth and snatched up the stunned Vernal with gravity magic. She became the instrument of his disgust; with one hand around her ankle, he swung her like a club, bashing Raven into the trunk of the tree over and over again. Every strike detached bits of the armor on her forearms and struck cuts across Vernal's exposed skin. Screams kept coming until the assault took her consciousness, but the metallic noise of her Aura trying to protect her bones against the impacts lasted until it broke with a flicker of icy blue light. All the Maiden could do was throw up her arms in self-defense – at the rate he was attacking, any magic discharge would kill Vernal and likely do serious damage to herself in the process. "You fucks!" he screeched at her between strikes, "You absolute _fucks_! How could you?!"

Her only replies were grunts of pain and protest.

One last flourish – he twirled Vernal over his head and spiked her shoulders into Raven's face like a spear – was enough for Opher to spend his rage, leaving him the only conscious presence in the forest. "Everything's fucking dying but me," he mumbled, the tears streaming freely from his eyes. Scattered bits of Raven's armor glittered in the noon sun like crystals of fire Dust. His brain latched onto the idea to prevent him from falling into a well of despair a thousand centuries deep, compelling him to check the time on his Scroll again.

Raven startled back into awareness. She weakly pushed Vernal off of her and sat up, just in time to see her would-be prey walking away from them. "Wait!" she called after him, voice hoarse.

"Kiss every single square centimeter of my ass, you useless cow. I have a shop to open in an hour." And a deep desire to get back to Vale in case any other would-be attackers were already trying to get to Indigo and Schwarze, but this he kept quiet behind a deeply hateful glare.

On weak knees, she stood, ready to take up her lost sword and attack him one more time. A few words from the Spring Maiden nailed to her soul brought that plan to a halt and froze her lungs over with dread.

 _I_ _won't be the reason he kills you_ _._

It was the first time she'd ever heard her power speak in such plain and understandable language. "But-!" she gasped at herself. Up went her left hand. The magic she wanted to use to grab her sword never activated – her Maiden refused to cede it. Stripped of too much might for the imminent arrival of some of Remnant's strongest nightmares, Raven fell back on her final option. "You can't just leave us!" she screamed at Opher.

He was too busy putting out her forest fire with idle flicks of water Dust to reply at first, daring the monsters on the western horizon to challenge him. A tremendous shadow passed overhead, cast by a black butterfly that must have been a hundred meters across if it was an inch, which bore the white mask of Grimm where its compound eyes would have been. Long, black, blade-like extrusions trailed from its hind wings, the trait which gave the Swordtail its name. Two more soared past before he looked away. "And now you're begging _me_ for help. I'd ask how far you've fallen, but it seems like you plunged through the floor of hell a while ago."

"You'll never get back to Vale without me!"

At last, she drew enough ire for him to wipe his eyes and stare at her. "Idle threats from a beaten child. You're fucking killing me. I'll tell you the same thing I told the woman in Mountain Glenn: leave my friends alone and _don't bother_ _me_ _again_." An outburst of wind Dust sent him rocketing into the sky in a shallow arc which took him eastward – seconds later, he was gone, with Swordtails trying to follow him in response to the crystals' discharge. They were far too slow to keep pace.

"...fuck," was her full response to his departure. The giant butterflies and their full-grown Griffon consorts flooded the sky above, occasionally blotting out the sun; she caught glimpses of their numbers through the branches and wracked her brain to figure out how to escape. Measured, if shaky, breaths entered and left her lungs in a barely-coherent rhythm. Once more, she reached out for her sword, her brother _, anything_. This time, the gift responded. After collecting him, her sword, and Vernal via some wispy tendrils of gravity, she whipped the blade downward and hacked a portal out of the air just as the Griffons started clawing at the canopy of the tree above her. The senseless Qrow went through it first, hurled by physical strength, while Raven opted to carry a bleeding Vernal into it as the body of a Swordtail crashed down to feast on her misery. Its potential meal was already gone, tumbling through space and time toward anywhere but the empty red forest.

* * *

"Then how do people buy and sell anything?"

Professor Peach, stationed at her lectern, only answered Ruby's question as she finished cleaning her large, round glasses. The arrival of Haven students had her classroom filled nearly to capacity; Ruby and Pyrrha's whole squads were there, as was Penny, Ciel, Ilia, and others – including Emerald, tucked away in a corner to observe her silver-eyed prey. "Miss Rose, just because people outside of Kingdoms can't use Lien cards doesn't mean that they don't have access to Lien itself. Almost all of the physical Lien minted never gets used in a Kingdom's borders, in fact. We just use digital currency here to save metal for other things."

"Like pipes," a bored-looking Weiss noted, "and airships, and marine vessels, and electrical wire…"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Ruby grumbled, her polite expression failing for a moment. "But like, what happens if you somehow lose all of your Lien coins and stuff, then you show up in some village. Then it's like, 'well whoops, we need something to eat but we don't have any scratch'. What happens?"

She clasped her hands on the lectern with a light smile. "Bartering! If all else fails, villages and expeditions fall back on the barter economy, which is how humankind-" here she paused to smile at Blake and Ilia, "-and I would guess the Faunus too, used to do business in the days before Dust. Items and services are exchanged. Hunters routinely offer their skills in such a way. Why, back when I was on the frontier, my first few months were spent repelling Grimm in exchange for room and board. It's beautifully simple!"

Thoughtfulness seized her expression. A quiet "Oh," slipped out as she recalled hearing about the concept last night. "Right. Makes sense."

Yang raised her hand next. "So, wait, if you suck at being a Hunter, do you just starve to death?"

She shook her head. "Not at all! I'll be honest… I wasn't the best at first myself, but villages and expeditions are never going to refuse the presence of an extra Huntsman or Huntress. To survive, everyone has work together." Unpleasant memories began to darken her cheerful face. "Unfortunately, however, as I learned, not everyone in the wilderness sees it that way." Something else caught her attention; it turned out to be her vibrating Scroll, which she plucked from one of the many pockets on her flowing blue skirt. "Oh, dear, excuse me for just a moment!"

Professor Peach departed from the classroom entirely to answer. Left to their own devices, her students fell into conversation among themselves. "I'm glad I signed up for this," Pyrrha admitted with a light smile. "It's nice to think about the outside world without focusing on, well, the Grimm."

"I guess," Blake replied weakly, unable to stop herself from wondering if that barter system included the exchange of people and Faunus too – like Velvet. She rubbed at her eyes with a groan.

"Something on your mind? Wait. Why am I asking, there's always something on your mind."

"I'm fine," she lied, forced to look back and up where Ilia sat with Penny and Ciel. The android waved cheerfully; Blake couldn't help but smile in return. "Hi, Penny."

"Hello!"

Ilia acquired a rather grumpy pose, arms folded and glowering. "Don't fib at me, Belladonna."

"I am not fibbing at you!"

"Yes you are, you're an _awful_ fibber!"

Peach's return a moment later prevented a real tiff from breaking out; all the students turned their attention to her as she walked back up to the lectern. "Since we're just about out of time anyway, I guess I'll make this announcement now. Who here has combat instruction with Professor Branwen next? Raise your hands." She frowned at the number who did so – all eight members of Ruby and Pyrrha's merry bands, plus Penny's team, and Emerald along with a few others. "Oh boy. Ah… the rest of you can go ahead to your next class. See you all tomorrow!"

While they filed out, an antsy Ruby mumbled to her sister, "What the heck?" A shrug was her reply.

"Now, as for the rest, um…" the poofy-headed teacher eyeballed her Scroll. "The class is canceled for today, I'm afraid. You'll have a free period until your _next_ next class is supposed to start."

"Why?"

Peach looked up at Yang, smiling through the fact that she had nothing to give the blonde. "I'm not sure. All I know is what Professor Ozpin told me, which wasn't much. I'm sure it's no biggie." A ringing bell from above the whiteboard drew all of their attention. "Ah, there we are. See you all tomorrow, too. Bye!"

After departing their seats and shuffling out into the hallway, the teams grouped up among themselves but all walked together toward the dorm complex – except for Emerald, who took her leave and went the other direction without much notice. "I don't get it. What happened?" Jaune asked the crowd.

"Eh, I'm sure it's nothing. I'll ask him." Yang's Scroll was already in her hand. After sending a message to her uncle, she noticed a new reply to the thread started by her text to Blake's parents. "Oh, Blake, I think your mom says hi. Aaaaaand she's wondering if your Scroll works yet?"

"No," was the groaned reply. "Maybe if I reset it or something? I don't know, I'm still not totally used to these models yet."

Ruby, each step a bounce, waved her hand. "Oh, I'll help! It's not too bad. Hey, you can even back up your data to mine if you need to."

"Thank you, Ruby." Blake noticed a smirk on Ilia's face. "What?"

"Is she always this nice?"

"You bet I am!" she answered before Blake could, grinning like mad and walking backwards. The heel of her boot caught on the floor; she stumbled right out of the cool, collected air which had been her goal. A magnetic assist from a chuckling Pyrrha was needed to keep her upright. "Wh… whoops!"

While Ilia busted out laughing, Yang, eyes on her Scroll, slowed from their shared walking pace. Nora saw this first. "Yang?" she said, stopping and bringing the whole congregation to a halt. "What's up?"

"He… hasn't replied to me."

Ciel, beret doffed so she could smooth down her deep sapphire locks, replied "It's only been a couple of minutes." She blinked as Yang's uneasiness infected Ruby; both girls' faces were drawn tight.

"He wouldn't leave us hanging when he's right here at school." Ruby darted through the crowd to stand with her sister. As other students filed by, she noticed a few coming from the direction of the arena that she recognized as having combat class during second period. "Yo!" she called, jumping and waving. A boy with long, cream-colored hair and brown eyes looked her way first. "Hey, Theo, hey! Hey! Hey! Did you guys come from Uncle Qrow—I mean Professor Branwen's class?"

"Nope," he replied with a shrug on the way into Oobleck's classroom. "They told us it was canceled at the end of first period. No clue why."

"Oh. Thanks anyway." She looked back at Yang. "What the actual frack is going on here?"

"Dunno. I'm about to find out, though," was her answer as she walked toward the combat arena.

Ruby nodded once and moved to catch up. "Yeah. You guys head back to the dorms, or whatever, we'll see you for lunch period!"

"Are you sure you don't want us to come?" Weiss asked, head tilted slightly.

"Nah, it's all right. We'll call you if we need you." Yang led the way past the crowd of students looking for their classrooms, out of the building, and into the early autumn air.

Interspersed with the new arrivals from Haven were a few uniformed people that gave both sisters a bit of pause; soldiers from Vale's Army, in slate blue coats with white trim and matching baggy pants that were tucked into shiny black boots. Unlike Atlas' troops, their service ribbons occupied spots near their right shoulders. Berets, colored based on their job titles with flashes bearing metal rank insignia, were worn universally. Not all of them carried visible weapons, but those who did wore assault rifles strapped to their backs.

"Um?" Ruby squeaked after walking by a pair of them.

"Maybe he talked to the faculty overnight and this is what they decided to do," Yang replied quietly. She stared at her Scroll – a second message to Qrow had gone unanswered by now. "I'm gonna call him." This only got her to his voicemail. "Fuck me."

"No answer?"

"Nope." They arrived at the arena; she ducked into it first through one of the corridors that went to the central floor and sprinted all the way onto the raised platform. The building was completely empty. "What the hell is going on here?"

Ruby bounced to a halt beside her a second later. "That's it. I'm gonna dash to the faculty dorm and see what the deal is."

"Do it. I'll catch up."

She left the arena as a red smear of speed and nerves, only taking up her usual form when she needed to stop and change direction outside to get to the administration complex of Beacon's campus. As the students thinned out, she remained in her Semblance even longer, blasting past staff and soldiers on the mostly empty walkways – anxiety propelled her right past her target, forcing her to slide to a noisy, scraping halt a few meters past the teacher and staff quarters. Breaths quick, but still tightly measured, she skipped up to the front doors and pushed one open to look inside… nearly smacking an unarmed Olivine with it in the process.

"Hey, watch it," she snapped, grumbling with heightened displeasure when she looked down at Ruby's surprised face. "What are you doing over here?"

"Sorry, Miss Duprix, ma'am!" she apologized hastily. "I just, uh, well, have you seen Uncle—er, Mister Professor Branwen? We're trying to figure out why his classes got canceled and we can't get in touch with him and-"

Olivine waved her off with an armored glove and stepped around to exit the building, deploying a ready-made falsehood on the way. "Ozpin has him scouting the south forest 'cause of the incident yesterday," she said gruffly. "We're all trying to figure out what happened 'cause Opher Riese hasn't said a word to us."

"Wait. What? Really? Still?" Ruby followed her down the small path toward the walkway. "Then why are there soldiers walking around?"

"The administration doesn't want kids getting snatched off the campus, so Glynda and Ozpin decided to bring in a little Army support for now," she said around the clanking of her armored dress. A hand went up to wipe sweat from her brow. "There aren't many Grimm around in that section of the forest, I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just out of Scroll range. I'm gonna head down there soon. I'll let him know you're worried."

A huge, toothy smile appeared on Ruby's face. "Thank you! Sorry about nearly dooring you in the nose." As she turned to her right to leave – and wave to Yang, who approached at a jog – she heard the noise of Olivine's gait stop and looked up. Their eyes met again.

"Did you know this guy?" she asked. "I heard what he did in the trial." Ruby's shrug caused her to raise an eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I dunno. We're not, like, _friends_. We don't even know why he helped us." Another shrug. "Soooooo, yeah."

"Huh." Olivine tossed her hair back over her shoulder and proceeded to walk away while figuring out whether or not to believe that. "Weird. Anyway, get back to wherever you're supposed to be before Goodwitch has an aneurysm."

"Yes ma'am! Sorry again!"

She heard Ruby relay her lie to Yang before losing interest in their chatter. Her destination wasn't the south gate, but Beacon Tower, where a chat with Ozpin awaited. What she saw when the elevator doors opened to reveal his office startled her a bit. The windows were nearly opaque – the old man apparently had the electrochromatic panels on their darkest setting. The lack of overhead lights thanks to the clockworks left the room unnervingly dark. His gaze was out those windows, back to her and his desk and chair between them. "Where the hell is Qrow? His brats are asking questions. Did you send him to check Riese's apartment or something?" she asked while walking through the support pillars.

Ozpin turned just enough to look at her over his shoulder. "He's with Lady Branwen in Vacuo."

The plates on her arms scraped gently as she crossed them. "Why?"

"Waiting on her to recover." He turned fully as the confusion spread across her face and moved to sit down. "They weren't fast enough to get away from him. Qrow, ironically, got off lucky. Raven has… I believe it's four cracked ribs and a concussion. Vernal is probably going to be bedridden for a few weeks. At least they managed to avoid the Grimm."

"Oh my gods. I knew they were gonna end up fighting." An abrupt, severe headache forced her to rub her temples and pace slowly. "How did he end up in Forever Fall?"

"Riese forced him along into the portal."

"Damn." Some thought on the matter lessened her pain. "At least she didn't get knocked out. I can go to Vacuo and talk to her. Maybe she got something out of him before she left him to die in the forest." That migraine surged back when Ozpin shook his head. "What?"

"She didn't leave him anywhere. Last she saw of him he was flying southeast at high speed. I assume to come back to Vale."

Olivine clutched at her head with both gloved hands. "There's no gods damned way he has the power to fly that fucking far. He fell into the Bellmeuse Sea. There's no…" A screen Ozpin brought up caused her to fall silent; she stepped over and bent down to look at down at Opher's passport file. Included was the last time the chip was scanned: a few hours ago, where an automatic detector picked him up leaving the port district on his way back to Diamond Dust. "Wh… how did—how did he…" Continued silence from Ozpin drove her back to pacing, this time more rapidly.

"One Maiden knocked out, another driven away, but both defeated all the same," he finally said. "My intuition and hers seem to have failed in this instance. We need a different strategy."

"It's gotta be me." She pounded her breastplate with one palm when he looked up. "I'm the strongest, old man, it has to be me. Get me into Vale. Get him out here, whatever, I'll do it." Again, he shook his head. "Why the fuck not?! He beat up my little sisters, damn it, I want his ass!"

"Because the Spring Maiden surrendered. Not Raven – her power."

Olivine had no reply for this; on sluggish steps she wandered away from the desk and sat down on the floor, since the chairs were a bit too snug for her large frame. Some time later, she finally said, "When you met him yesterday… did you panic?"

He clasped his hands on the desk. "I had concerns. Needless to say they have grown over the past several hours."

"You said you could read the stuff on his arm. What did it say? Is that why?"

"Names I didn't recognize. Old labels for places I did." The clicking gears on the ceiling drew his eye for a moment. "Salem is going to be displeased with this whole affair… but I have an idea which might assuage her concerns."

"What a surprise." She hauled herself to her feet again and stretched as much as her armor would allow. "What do you need me to do?"

"Actually? Nothing. For all the violence he has committed against your sisters, Riese didn't kill them-"

Olivine's snort interrupted him. "He sure fucked up the Malachite gang, though."

"Yes, well, exiles can replace those losses. The four of you are less interchangeable." Ozpin tugged at his collar and pressed on. " _Could_ he kill you? I don't know. Apparently he stands a better chance at it than we gave him credit for. Salem's hammer and nail philosophy didn't work for either of us, clearly. If we fight _this_ fire with fire, we may burn down the whole house."

Those faded bronze eyes narrowed a little. "You don't think I could stop him?"

Ozpin allowed himself a gentle smile to blunt her ire before a more serious expression returned. "I wouldn't insult you, Lady Duprix. My concerns lie with the cost such a battle would incur – not to mention that, given the way you react to him, I don't think I want to know what the Winter Maiden might do in his presence." He moved to switch off the screen with Opher's passport file. "Besides, I want to know about those names on his arm. We still lack information about this batch of Tanager's followers. Perhaps he'll be willing to tell us with some clever negotiation."

"Okay, sure, I'd like to know too, but…" Olivine's hands went to her hips. "Are you nuts? After we attacked him twice? I don't think talking is on the menu anymore."

"He may have suspicions, but I doubt any of them are about me. And if I can't smooth this over, well… we might find some leverage by having his friends get swept up in the more comprehensive Army deployment I'll be recommending to Central Command later today. For campus security, of course. He seems keen to protect them."

"Huh." Her pale face softened with thought. "That's a fine line to walk, using them against him without pissing him off."

"I have enough experience to make it work. In the meantime, we should turn our attention back toward Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Blake Belladonna. I can't maintain the White Rabbit protocol on their Scrolls forever. Belladonna is using Yang Xiao Long to talk to her parents; we're fortunate nothing sensitive has gotten through yet."

"I guess. That problem's easy to take care of anyway." Contemplation fled in favor of a suspicious squint. "Why are you suddenly interested in playing ball with Riese when you wanted him dead yesterday?"

"I could have excused one victory as a curious circumstance. Perhaps even guile like Tock. But to face two Maidens head-on, not flee, and emerge victorious – no, not only to win, but inflict such damage?" He leaned back in the chair to regard a confused Olivine. "It made me think."

"You're always thinking, old man."

That forced a brief laugh. "Hear me out. If his friends in the wilderness are anywhere near as powerful as he is – and surely some of them are women – then perhaps Salem will finally get the long-lived daughters she so desperately and rightfully craves. And as for him…" His gaze became as dark as the windows. "My life in this shell is nearing its end. Given his apparent power… I'd be remiss not to try and make him my next."


	20. Discordant

With the Moon's shattered hemisphere pointed directly away from Remnant, it looked almost normal, its damage betrayed only by the debris field in orbit with it. The night sky was crystal clear, glittering stars joined by the navigation lights of airships at all altitudes either headed to or away from Vale, plus others much higher up making the marathon runs between Vacuo and Mistral, or Vacuo and Atlas. Ruby, perched on the cliff's edge very close to the airship pads, ignored the gorgeous view in favor of things in her lap. One of these was Crescent Rose in rifle format; another was a box of practice tracer rounds. Also on hand were several bullet-sized Dust crystals she'd managed to chip off of a larger stone, plus her Scroll, whose light she used to see in the darkness. Despite the late hour, students were still out and about on campus – she could hear them in the distance over her shoulder.

"Huh…" she muttered, comparing the size of the small Dust shards to the size of a Dust cartridge. "Erk… how can I get these in a magazine?"

Thinking about that challenge made her shake her head; better to find out if the effort would be worth it first. She manually loaded the round, then did a little fiddling with the charging handle and ejection port to load two of the small Dust shards along with it. After getting to her feet, she looked down into Beacon Lake, whose calm, transparent waters betrayed the wrecks of the Bullheads which had crashed trying to defend the campus from the Nevermore flock. Their shattered metal hulks gleamed dimly in the moonlight. Frowning, Ruby set her gun down just long enough to issue a respectful prayer in memory of their pilots.

Then she took up Crescent Rose again, aiming down its scope toward the distant city of Vale while adjusting its focus for several seconds. Just before she could evoke Remnant's retort and pull the trigger, however, she felt a gentle squeeze on her right shoulder and looked back to find a grinning Yang. While Ruby was clad in her full combat ensemble, the blonde opted for something more casual – a garish lemon-colored tank top and baggy gray pants over blue and white sneakers. "Huh? What are you doing out here?"

"Stole the question right outta my mouth, squirt." After a huff from Ruby, she moved up to stand alongside and stare out into the dark vista. "Taking potshots at the city?"

"I'm finally gonna test a supercharged load." Ruby closed one eye to aim her shot, but proceeded no further. "What do I ask for to set off this Dust the right way? Um…"

"Hell, just say it straight out and see what happens."

"Hrmph." More aiming, more stalling. "I guess it can't hurt. Look, stand over there, okay? If this blows up in the chamber, then-"

Yang ruffled her black hair. "Just take the shot, Ruby, you're thinking too much."

Flashes of her failure to pull the trigger just before their imminent death in that round clearing rattled uncomfortably in her head – the images were somehow too fresh while feeling years old at the same time. A grumpy "Gods, fine," emerged in response. She issued her silent request first, then waited a second or two to pull the trigger. The round flew from the muzzle and into the night air, striking an empty sandbar on the western side of the lake – a path which she tracked through her scope – with enough force to eject a spray of sand into the air.

"Neat." Yang – once the ringing in her ears faded enough – looked to her little sister for context. "Well?"

"That was really fast!" she whispered hastily. "I could stack three of these behind a capped AP round and punch through all kinds of things! Oh, oh, oh, what if I put Dust _in front_ of a capped round?!"

A smiling Yang rolled her eyes. "Oh gods, here we go."

"Don't snort at me, dang it!"

After a bit of laughter, she let Ruby go back to poking at her rifle before dropping the real reason for her presence. "You haven't been sleeping too well lately."

Her movement hitched to a stop. "Eh?" she said while looking up. "How would you know?"

"Because this ain't the first time I've seen you out here. You think I'm dumb?"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…" She turned her back and walked a few steps toward the airship pads. "It's no big deal, don't worry about it."

"And yet you're currently doing a Blake."

"That's rude!" she huffed as Yang sat on the grass. They stared out toward the dark, empty plains in silence. After a while, she added, "I… see lights."

These weren't the city's illumination, nor the dim, bouncing yellow lanterns of refugees seeking help behind Vale's walls, but the powerful, stark white glow of flood lights heading away from the seaside Kingdom. "Must be an expedition," Yang deduced quietly. "Looks like they're headin' north again."

"Yeah." Ruby plopped down on the ground as well, weighed down by the glimpse at their future.

"You having more weird dreams or what?" Yang grinned at the uncertain look she got. "You didn't even tell me about the first."

Resisting her maternal air was impossible, but Ruby tried anyway, busying herself with loading another tracer round and some extra Dust shards. "Not much to tell."

"You still remember it?"

"Well, yeah." She didn't need to look up to know exactly what expression Yang wore now. "It was just a dumb dream." Silence. "You're not leaving until I talk about it, are you."

"Nope!"

One heavy sigh later, Ruby gave up fussing with Crescent Rose and set the weapon in her lap. "I was alone. There was a forest. There were Grimm. Then the forest _was_ the Grimm. I can't really explain it. Then…" A frown pulled at her lips. "There was someone else."

Yang cocked her head. "Huh? Who was it?"

"Dunno. Looked kinda like another girl, taller than me. White cloak? Glowy eyes. I think they were eyes. Silver. Like mine. She didn't have a face, there was just black under her hood." She looked over just in time to watch Yang produce her Scroll from a hip pocket, but no words were said as she tapped at the screen, nor when she handed it to Ruby. Displayed was a picture of her mother she'd never seen before; Summer Rose, holding a tiny, swaddled Ruby, stood next to a taller blonde man with a cocky grin and a failed attempt at a goatee – Taiyang Xiao Long, their father. A little girl in cute purple overalls and a red t-shirt was on his shoulders, bearing the same kind of smile – Yang, her yellow hair tugged into haphazard twintails behind her ears. Summer had on much the same style outfit as Ruby currently wore, but her cloak was a brilliant white. The hood was up too, betraying just how camera shy she was. Something about the way it was cut to fall over her mother's forehead startled her a bit. "It… it looked like this," she finally murmured. "I think? But…"

Yang took her Scroll back. "Did she say anything?"

"She-" Ruby had to hunt for those four words. "She said 'they will revile me'." Now her own Scroll emerged from a pocket as she tried to figure out what _revile_ meant. "Erm… hate me? Who?"

"Well, if it was just you, her, and the Grimm, then it must be the Grimm."

"I guess." Ruby shrugged Crescent Rose from her lap and hugged her knees. "You think it was… mom?"

"Pff, I wouldn't even know where to start to figure out what it means. Hey, ask Blake. She's got a whole book about dreams and stuff."

"Huh. Maybe I should." Both girls watched the white lights of the departing expedition as it trundled ever farther away from Vale. "But if that _was_ mom, then… huh."

"What?"

Her knee-hug grew more intense. "Do you think she's watching over us?"

"Yeah." Yang cast a look up into the starry sky. "I _know_ she is."

Silence followed one last thoughtful mumble from Ruby as they watched the white lights proceed forward across the empty plains. Ages passed before she found the power to speak again. "I hope those guys make it."

"Give us a few more years and we'll make sure they do. Personally." A long, low sigh emerged as fog from her mouth. "Hey, I can see my breath."

"We won't be helping anyone if you freeze to death, you big dummy." Ruby took up her weapon again, fed it a cartridge and three shards this time, then locked the bolt in battery, threw up her silent prayer, and aimed. This shot was even louder than the first – it streaked into the night, trajectory flat for hundreds of meters before curving down as the tracer glow expired. " _Geez_! That sucker went so far!"

"Wonder how much armor that would have gone through."

"Yeah! That's what I'm saying!" Too excited to stay on her butt, Ruby jumped up, hopping around as she thought of the possibilities. "You could put sooooooooooooo much distance between yourself and the Grimm with this!" Just as abruptly, though, she deflated a little and fell still. "Wish we could teach the new guys about it."

"Eh, let the teachers figure this out. Don't forget that Penny can't even do it," Yang said as she got up, rubbing the back of her pants to shed any persistent blades of grass.

"Penny doesn't _need_ it."

"I mean, yeah, but-" She fell silent as a shadow approached from the airship pads, lit up from behind – not that she had any trouble discerning who it was, because only one person had that combination of height, muscle, and flowing ponytail. "Yo, Pyrrha! You sneaked up on us."

That was because she wore a set of casual clothes not unlike Yang, save for color and shoe style, and not her clanking golden armor. "Aha, I apologize. I heard quite a noise just now."

"Whoops. Sorry, that was me!" Ruby admitted, raising her left hand. "I've been trying the thing to add propellant to my Dust bullets. Seems to work really well!"

"Ah. That's good!" Pyrrha nodded once, but her smile was already on the way out. "Speaking of… we might be getting a chance to show it off to someone who really matters soon." She patted the Scroll in her hip pocket. "Miss Goodwitch just sent me a message. The Army wants to speak to us. About remote priming… about him."

Yang scratched at her fluffy blonde hair. "Wait, Opher? Where even is he? I haven't seen him do delivery runs since the… yeah, that happened."

"I got a message from him too. The same thing is happening to him. I suppose we've all got their attention now."

"Dang, about time. He's been quiet for a little bit." Ruby tilted her head in thought. "So, then… what? Is there something he wants us to tell them?"

Yang, brow knitted with mild disdain, cracked her knuckles and discarded that concept right away. "I don't care if there is or not. We already covered for him once and you saw what it did. I'm not lying to the military for a guy I barely know, even if he saved our asses once and helped us twice."

Pyrrha waited for Ruby to gather her things before leading them all back toward the main walkway. "Actually… I asked him myself, and he wants us to tell the truth and direct any questions we can't answer to him. Apparently Miss Stahl went through the same thing a couple of days ago."

"Oh." Yang blinked once, then put on the barest hint of a smile. "So he's finally coming clean, then? Neat. Maybe he can start teaching us for real, 'cause I still wanna punch the ground and make ice fly out."

"Hmm."

"Oh, I know that noise," Ruby said on her way up to Pyrrha's right side. "What's the problem?"

"Just thinking," she replied, thin brows knitted. "Why is he so willing to talk to them, but not to Beacon's staff? Or to us?"

"I mean, it's the Army, Pyrrha. He'd be stupid not to. They can exile him. They can _kill_ his ass."

That earned Yang a little frown. "Yes… still. I can't help but feel like he's trying to…" The exact words evaded her; she looked up toward the brilliant Moon to find them.

"Huh? What?" Ruby bounced in front to catch her eyes again. "What?"

"Not keep something from us, but keep us from something. For our sake." She gauged their expressions for a quiet moment. "Someone was willing to take him by force. Perhaps he's been silent so we're not of interest to whoever did."

Yang waved her off and started walking again. "Eh. If anything was gonna happen, it would have by now. Whatever." She rested her hands behind her head with a rude yawn. "Let's just get some sleep. It's way too cold to be out here."

Pyrrha shook her head with a smile and fell in beside them, walking past several former Haven students who were out enjoying the lack of a set bedtime. "Oh, but I love the fall… ah, well. I'm glad he's finally talking to _someone_ , at least. That can only be good news."

"Maybe…" Ruby's eyes darted about as they walked toward the courtyard. Something which occupied the shadow between two lamps caught her eye – a shape in the bushes that instantly registered in her mind as not human. Her head snapped around to focus on it and she found, to her horror, a Grimm; some type that she'd not seen before, quadrupedal and stubby and round with white spikes on its back. Crescent Rose snapped into her hand in a second, half-unfurled into its rifle form. "What the heck?!" she snapped, finger on the trigger.

"Whoa!" Despite lacking her weapons, Yang's fists went up as she turned to face the source of Ruby's terror. An unarmed Pyrrha was limited to turning around in shock.

What they saw there caused them to drop their arms; not a monster, but a girl with minty green hair leaned against the base of a lamppost which was out of order, wearing a dark-colored hoodie over white pants and dark brown, strappy heels. A Scroll was in her hand. "You've got about five seconds to explain why you're aiming what I assume is a gun at me," Emerald said, tone low and dangerous as she ceased twisting Ruby's perception.

"I… I…" Ruby carefully lowered the muzzle toward the ground, breaths entering and leaving her mouth at a rapid pace. A few more looks at the general area revealed no beast. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I just thought I saw a… I mean, the shadow looked like a Grimm, I, uh…"

"I don't think Grimm have hair like this," Emerald retorted, waving one of her long green locks around. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Yang, hand on Ruby's shoulder, put herself between them as more attention fell upon the scene – other students, attracted by the racket, were wandering over to check things out. "She's just tired. Sorry. It's cool."

That hand turned her around so they could walk away quickly, leaving a stunned Pyrrha behind. It took her a few seconds of watching them rush away before she turned to Emerald – who's face was already back in her book. "She didn't mean it, I assure you. I—um..."

A grumpy Emerald waved her free hand. "Whatever. If it happens again, I'm reporting it."

"It won't. Ah, good evening." Pyrrha dipped her head then departed hastily, moving through the sparse crowd that had gathered around to figure out what had happened.

Her departure broke them up, leaving Emerald alone and smiling as she made some notes on her Scroll. "Well," she mumbled, "this oughta be easy."

* * *

"What the fuck do you mean he can't tell them anything?!"

Winter eyeballed a raging Indigo from across her sparsely-furnished living room – the unit looked much like Opher's, save for a much more demure set of window dressings than his unit – and crossed her arms. "This is why I didn't want them involved," she said to him.

Opher, seated alone on the small sofa, hunched forward with his face shielded by both his hat and his hands, refused to reply. The prospect of the true art's recession into nothing continued to drag his mood down, even days later. He had nothing to give – not anger, not even sass. Only uncertain, pained silence.

After firing a concerned, if vaguely annoyed, look at him, Indigo snapped for attention from Winter. "Hey! Answer me!"

"The situation would be touchy at best – and I have orders. We are keeping this to ourselves for now." She assumed her favorite posture – hands clasped behind her back, spine straight, and unintentionally looked at them down her nose. "There's nothing I can do. Our mission could strain relations between Vale and Atlas if revealed at the wrong time."

"Why the hell would that happen?! We're all on the same side!" No answer from Winter caused Indigo to growl; she looked to Opher and got even more silence, which incensed her further. "Damn it, say something!" she snapped, throwing her hands into the air.

Schwarze, who chose to occupy the fringes of their debate by hanging out near the kitchen entrance, finally made a move – literally, by walking over to the couch and sitting next to Opher. "Cutie," she whispered, leaning down to match his pose, "she's right. You can't stay quiet forever."

He dropped his hands at last, regarding her with lifeless green eyes. That gaze went to Indigo next. "They took me from the shop after you two left for the Government District."

All anger sublimated into various levels of confusion, or, in Indigo's case, abject, mouth-agape horror. She darted over to him. "Wh—who took you from the shop? Wait, what? Are you… are you okay? What the fuck?"

"And why did you wait until now to tell us this?!" Schwarze added angrily.

"Because I wanted to meet Winter first so we could arrange some way to help protect you two. Not my fault she's been occupied the past few days." Opher hauled himself to his feet, his movement slowed by the weight of every single one of his too-numerous years. "And I'm fine. It was someone with a Semblance that allows her to make portals… she took me who knows where. Oh, and she's another one of Carmine's sisters."

"Who is Carmine?"

He only glanced at Winter. "The woman that taught me how to use Dust the way I do." Immense relief flooded his chest when both of his friends chose to stand on either side of him, despite the tremendous worry which caused them to tremble. They struggled to regulate their breaths.

She produced her Scroll, ready to take down information. "Then I'd like to speak with her too. Where might I find-"

"In the afterlife. If Atlas can get there, fuck it, I'll do whatever the hell you guys want me to do with no questions asked."

"I'm… sorry to hear that." Just as quickly, however, she perked up again. "But you mentioned sisters. What about them?"

"Not blood relatives… and I'm gonna say they're probably not interested in being helpful, given that two of them have tried to kill me." Opher looked down as Indigo broke away suddenly.

"Wait. So you're telling me this woman can just… appear? And if she does, we're fucked?" She walked all the way around the room before managing to add, between rapid breaths, "From nowhere?! Without warning?!"

"Indigo, breathe," Schwarze said gently. She squeaked with surprise when Indigo darted over and seized her by the wrist. "Ah-"

"I'm done. Nope. That's it. I'm out." Her eyes went to Opher. "Listen. You're a good guy, strong, great lay – and you can fly, apparently! But they know where my shop is and you didn't tell me? If I gotta pick between you and us dying in our sleep because someone's pissed at you and we catch that bullet by accident, then sorry. No. I don't know what the fuck it is you've got going on with her, either, but I'm not interested. Bye. Good luck or what the fuck ever. This dumbass has to come first. And my family, too, who the fuck knows where this bitch can show up. No thanks. We're leaving."

"Wait a damn minute, this is why I brought you here!" he shot back, a hint of desperation in his voice. "So I'd have help to protect you!"

"Well, I'll help you help us. Bye." With that, she dragged her best friend toward the door by her hand, ignoring the mild resistance and "Indigo, hold on a moment!" which Schwarze yelped on the way. Their departure sucked all the air from the room.

"Perhaps that was for the best," Winter remarked after a long, quiet while passed. "If these people are as strong as you say, we might not have been able to do much regardless beyond moving them elsewhere."

"Yeah. That sure did happen fast, though." Opher shed his hat while rubbing firmly at his eyes and silently cursing at himself. "And the knife never seems to get any duller," he added almost silently. An expectant gaze was his reward for looking back at Winter again. "What?"

"I'm going to need _something_ to send back up the chain. We gave you a passport. You've not given us much in return."

Blank staring became a deeply annoyed glower. "You already seem to know about remote priming, somehow. What else do you want from me?"

Winter paced again, one foot in front of the other with all the speed of a snail. "You can fly? Semblance, I assume?"

Opher tugged his hat back on and sat down, hunched over in the same tired position as earlier. "No." More expectant silence – which he refused to meet with any information. "Indigo has a point. Why would any of this cause friction between Kingdoms?"

"That's not important."

"Then neither is everything else I know," he said while standing up to leave. Winter placed herself between him and the door; this turned a bad mood worse and he crossed his arms, glaring daggers. "You can't be fucking serious."

She weathered his unhappy growling with stoic discipline, spine straight and hands clasped behind her back as usual. "Hear me out. I'm in the dark about a lot of the mission myself, but I know enough to understand that it will help all of us when the time is right. The time isn't right yet." Some of his anger was replaced by confusion, encouraging Winter to press on. "And as for remote priming, I know of at least one person that can't do it. We're trying to figure out why."

That was enough to bring him away from his anger – even for him to blink with surprise, since it flew in the face of what he knew. "Hold on, what? I've never seen it fail for anyone that she taught or I taught."

"Carmine, you mean?"

"Yeah."

Winter relaxed for a moment to think. "Hmm. Was she part of some sort of tribe? If her 'sisters' are willing to resort to violence, then perhaps she was lying to you about-"

" _Don't you dare insult her_ _._ "

The sheer rage which boiled in his eyes stole Winter's breath. Normally, she would meet such emotion with frigid defiance, but something about his anger stung her instinct, not her consciousness. She rubbed at her rainbow choker as if trying to massage an apology from her throat, although a few coughs emerged first. "I wouldn't do that, I'm just considering every possibility. Whatever you've learned from her has the potential to save thousands – no, millions of innocent people. I promise, when we're done, everyone will know her name, but you have to help us make that happen."

The abrupt respect Winter showed his lost love made Opher a little suspicious. After a long, judgmental gaze to determine her sincerity, he turned his back on her and lifted his left hand, holding it palm up. A crackling tongue of blue fire sprouted to life.

Winter, immediately curious, stepped over to take a look. "How…" she mumbled, her brain suddenly full of questions that all fought to escape at once. "Your hand is on fire! Isn't it?" A closer examination proved this false; while the fuel appeared to be his own flesh, it betrayed no signs of harm. "No, but-" Every second widened her icy eyes further with confusion.

He closed his fist, extinguishing the flame, and dropped his arm again. Instead of delivering an explanation, however, he looked back at the front door.

She did the same with a gentle "Hmm?" before getting the message a second or two later. "Ah. Give them some time, perhaps."

"I've sure got enough of it lying around," he whispered to himself. His next words were directed to her. "Can you give me some context about something?"

"I can try."

"I want to know what science thinks Dust is."

The phrasing itself raised alarms. Winter motioned at the couch; he only sat down several moments after she did, occupying the opposite end and staring at her from underneath his red, white, and black hat. "Having the question means you've surely already looked for an answer," she replied, polite, if cagey.

His stony gaze remained. " _Humor me_."

She cleared her throat. "Dust is a crystalline material which retains electromagnetic energy. Each species has a different molecular structure, which is why each type has a different color – the color of light reflected depends on how those molecules are arranged." Winter paused here to look for a reaction – which she didn't get – before moving on with a tug at the collar of her white blouse. "The crystal itself is something like glass, but we're not sure exactly what geological process creates it…" Now she tilted her head. "Don't you already know this? It's basic knowledge. Even children-"

Opher's raised hand shut her up. "I did live way out in the sticks, you know. There are seven species… wind, fire, water, ice, ground, electric, and gravity. Right?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." The curiosity on her face forced him to smile just a little. "So you're telling me it's electromagnetism – again, which is why I assume you need to prime it with your Aura, since it's basically the same force." Only a nod from her this time. "And that accounts for all of its effects?"

Another nod. "The discharge can rapidly heat air to burn it, or strip water vapor from the atmosphere, or even convert the crystal to something that resembles soil, for a few examples. Where are you going with this?"

Opher had reached his goal – a glimpse at how modern society attempted to twist the true art into scientific explanations. If this was any indication… a deep scowl marred his face. Thinking about the sorry state of the power of Carmine's sisters made it worse. Still stung by the rapid exit of his friends, he decided to blast holes in Winter's understanding – a plot which required another blue flame in his palm. "Explain this, then."

"I'm no scientist…"

"And I'm sure you're no idiot, either."

She watched the flame leave his palm entirely and float gently toward the ceiling – it seemed like a good idea to record it with her Scroll, so she did, with no objection from Opher. "Intense concentration of your Aura to excite air molecules?" was her first guess. Then the flame wandered all the way to the windowed corner of her living room, more than a few meters away. "Wait, your Aura can't be that large…" Now the fire executed wild zigzag motions all over the place, which made it hard to keep in the frame as she frantically moved her Scroll around. "What on Remnant is this?!"

His flame child streaked back toward him; he showed off by letting it enter his open mouth, which he then closed with a wry grin. "Dust is really dumb, you know. You prime it – whichever way doesn't matter – and a little while later it just happens. Despite that, though…" He motioned around at the apartment. "We were able to build all this stuff on that principle. I understand why you think it's so great. I just happen to know something better." More of the blue fire arrived, this time as snorts from his nostrils that disappeared quickly. "Dust is a descendant of a power I know as the true art."

Winter stared at her Scroll screen to ensure she kept his face in the shot. "A descendant of… _a_ descendant?" One breath helped her catch herself. "Before we get to that, I suppose, what is this 'true art'?"

"I can't explain what it is, because not even I understand that part. But the energy locked inside of Dust crystals is a shadow of that power." Another bitter scowl darkened his face. "And based on my encounters with Carmine's sisters, I think that power might be dying."

"Wh—dying? How can you tell?"

Opher stared off to the side, eyes locked into the middle distance, for a long while. "Because everyone could do it once – or so I've heard. Now hardly anyone can. I'm one. Carmine and her sisters were others. They're… considerably weaker than the stories I've heard, and I don't know why."

A deep sense of dread seized Winter – emotion directly from the pit of her soul, not her logical mind. "I'd like to hear these stories myself, if you wouldn't mind."

"I don't feel like sitting here for eight hours." He hunched forward once more with a sigh. "I will say this: imagine Dust that costs no Aura to use, whose effects you can control with your mind. A hundred times more precise. Probably a hundred times more powerful, too, even when someone like me uses it." Out went his left hand. One snap of his fingers brought an ice sculpture into existence on her little glass coffee table; a figure of Winter standing in her current outfit, perhaps one-seventh scale, whose details were so exact that it was as if he'd cast a mold of her as she sat there beside him.

"Oh my gods," she breathed, fighting to steady her hands so the recording would be decent. "How did… my necklace… I can see the facets on the stones!" There were even hints of color in the ice which she only noticed after a moment. "My nail polish?!"

Opher chuckled at her surprise. Another snap sublimated the figurine into a cloud of fog, which faded away shortly afterward. He allowed a few of his most ancient memories to bubble up and escape as words. "This was one of the ways they trained us to control the true art – which is why it's called an art in the first place. We learned to create with it _before_ we were trusted to destroy."

"Who is _they_?"

"In my specific case, I learned from my parents. Most of us did, I guess." He looked away. "Are you religious?"

She cocked a thin black eyebrow. "Not exactly, but I know enough about it. Why do you ask?"

Keen to make sure he got the words right, Opher brought out his own Scroll to look up the passage. "Hold on… here it is. 'And They clashed in the jungle with the consummate darkness, spending Their own bodies to destroy it.' Familiar?"

" _Cataclysm_. Verse 8. The Gods fought the Grimm and damaged the Moon according to the church." Winter eyed him for a long time, unable to read his blank face. "The whole story seems to reference an impact event of some kind – likely the one that created the Matsu Crater complex in Anima." His expression changed in a way that urged goosebumps to pop up across her forearms. "What?"

He smiled, but nothing about the expression was pleasant. Behind those dull green eyes, Opher fought to filter the experience enough to make it seem like a secondhand tale, not a crushing memory. This required _remembering_ the damn thing. One image emerged from hibernation – a burning jungle, air choked by red clouds of acrid fog. In his mind, he waded through piles of the dead and dying, an ocean of anguish that came up to his hips. Claws sunk into his back; teeth, too, as umbral monsters tried their utmost to finally kill him, ripping and ripping and ripping at his body until his brain ignored the searing agony like a scent that lingered in the air for too long. When he looked down at his hands again, his mind's eye stripped them of skin and flesh. Back then, it dripped from the bones of his fingers, melted by the stellar heat of magic clashing with magic, of the world ending, of the sky crashing down with roars that repeatedly blew out his eardrums as fast as his mutated Aura could heal them. For thousands upon thousands of Their treasured children, it was the last day they ever drew breath.

For him, it was the first time he realized he would never be able to _stop_ breathing.

"Ah… Mister Riese?" Winter said, unnerved by Opher's sudden trillion-yard stare. "You're… crying."

His perception snapped back to normal as he tried to cram that trauma back into its vault. "Am I?" He wiped his eyes with a sleeve. "Sorry. I guess I haven't had a good week."

"I understand. Take your time."

He did, several moments' worth, before finally returning to the conversation. "What's written in the book isn't the story I grew up hearing. The battle wasn't between the Gods and the Grimm; it was two armies fighting each other, each one full of soldiers with power like mine – the last battle of a war before Dust. Loooong before. My parents told me, their parents told them, and on and on for generations."

"Impossible. Any war would be suicidal, especially without the power of Dust." Winter fought the instinct to cross her arms – she was still recording, after all – and picked up the frown he'd just lost. "Besides, a large-scale battle would leave some sort of evidence." A sigh. "Not that anyone could check either way. Matsu is an exclusion zone."

"A what?"

She checked her Scroll's remaining storage capacity while explaining. "An area where a large-scale Grimm presence has been detected for at least fifty years. Matsu is one example. There's another southeast of Vacuo, and one which encircles the Kasserine Sea in Solitas. We don't know why they congregate in these places, but they're impossible to approach in anything but fast airships."

Opher's chest tightened when she mentioned the huge lake at the center of the northern continent, but by some miracle he kept that pain from reaching his face – at least now he had a modern term for the plague of beasts which defiled its shores. "They're hiding something."

Winter blinked at this. "What? They're Grimm. Mindless."

"Maybe not as mindless as you think." Her open-mouthed confusion caused a weak smile. "That's enough storytelling for today. How about something a little more practical? Two things you can act on right now, if you want."

"I'm…" Still a bit perplexed, she tucked her hair out of her eyes to stare at him. "I'm all ears."

"I said that very few people can use the true art… but they're out there. One of them goes to Beacon Academy. Her name is Ruby Rose." Opher found her surprise a little amusing. "You know her?"

Winter's brow knitted subtly. "She leads the team Weiss is on… um… how do you know she can use it?"

"'Cause I saw it in action. First piece of advice: find everyone you can that has silver eyes. They've got access to a type of power that I don't, and it _seriously_ fucks up the Grimm. You want to wipe them out? You'll need their help."

"I see. We'll look into it, then." She ceased recording to tap out written notes instead. "You said your parents taught you, what about them?"

"They're…" He hunched over and hid his eyes again. "I'm the only one left from my village."

"I'm sorry." Winter set her Scroll aside briefly to cross her arms over her chest in respect. "Where was your village?"

"Far north Solitas. Even farther north than the lake, on the coast. We could take boats right to the North Pole."

Her eyes snapped open. "Impossible! Nobody could survive there. There's nowhere to grow food, the only source of fresh water is a lake thick with Grimm, even trying to fish would be-" Words left her when he met that gaze – snaking tendrils of blue fire trailed out from his green eyes.

"That's how powerful we were," he stated quietly. "We could melt the ice. Heat the soil, like Atlas does now. For a while… we could even resist the Grimm." The fire left his eyes and he looked away. "Maybe I should save this stuff for my therapist in the morning."

"Perhaps it's best if you vent to me about this particular subject instead." They shared a fleeting smirk. "You mentioned two things, what's the other one?"

A more hateful grin arrived on his pale face. He'd purposefully avoided contact with Beacon, but now that the Qrow and his friend – relative, based on how similar they looked – had apparently fucked him out of his relationship with Indigo and Schwarze, he decided to counterattack without lifting a finger. "The woman that attacked me at Indigo's shop wasn't alone. She had company – a teacher at Beacon, believe it or not. Come to think of it, the first time I got jumped, one of the staff was there."

Her typing came to an abrupt halt as she looked up. "Do you have names?"

Opher's smile grew so much that teeth began to show. "Yeah. Qrow Branwen was there the second time. I think he might be related to her – and I'm damn sure it's worth an investigation even if he isn't. Girl named Abilene was there for the first. Brown hair, brown eyes, maybe your height. About my age, maybe."

"Branwen?" she repeated, icy eyes wide. "Are you sure?"

"That's what he told me." His brow arched with curiosity. "What's the problem?"

"The Branwens are the Valesian Crown's representatives on Patch. They basically run the island." A bitter knot constricted Winter's stomach as she thought; this feeling encouraged her to begin the inquiry right away. The other person was a less-prickly bramble to dive into, so she navigated to Beacon's public network site to look for her. "Abilene... first name?"

"Yeah."

"Hm." She looked. And looked. "There doesn't seem to be anyone on staff there called Abilene."

"What?" He turned to face her on the couch. "She told me she worked for the Academy. What does that mean?"

"Not sure. Could be someone your kidnapper sneaked onto campus to help capture you. Academy security can, and often does, have holes. I'll do a little digging later. As for your Branwen..." She couldn't find anything on Beacon's own site, but a search of Qrow's last name – since the spelling of his first apparently wasn't the one she expected – led her to Signal Academy instead. "This might be him. Is it?" she asked, showing Opher the picture to confirm.

"Yep. His name is spelled with a Q? And people make fun of mine."

"Hmm." There wasn't much to glean from his public bio at Signal, but Winter saw enough to go looking in Patch's record system instead. Nothing stood out to her except for one little detail – a fraternal twin sister named Raven who was listed as deceased. A dip into her files revealed basic information, as expected, but two things caught her eye: her date of death, sixteen years ago, plus a picture that Winter decided to show him. "Does she look familiar?"

He took the device to examine Raven's younger face. Her red eyes weren't as weary, and some of the subtle lines were missing, but there was no doubt about who he was looking at. "Oh, good, even the corpses are trying to kill me now. Yeah, this is her," he confirmed while giving back her Scroll.

"Hmm." Winter's face softened with thought. "Influential families tend to prefer the label of _dead_ over _exiled_." Her expression hardened again, causing Opher's head to tilt quizzically. "Never mind. Something clearly happened, but I'll need time to figure out what."

"Yeah. Now that I'm apparently out of a job…" he sighed, looking back at the door, "...I guess I can go snooping around myself. Maybe get some idea of why Carmine's sisters are suddenly after me."

"Be careful. I have a feeling my chain of command is going to warm up to you once they see what you've shown me. We'd hate for something to happen to you."

Opher stood up and adjusted the fit of his hat with a defeated smirk. "That should be the least of your worries. Are we done?"

She rose as well, smoothing down her skirt – the smile on her face was somewhat more professional. "For now, yes. Good evening, Mister Riese."

"Yeah." Out he shuffled into the hallway, but before he entered his own apartment, he took a long, silent look at Indigo's closed door, then Schwarze's. Bowed by helplessness, he leaned on the wall and emitted a long sigh. "I guess I'll just let them sleep on it."

* * *

Morning brought a harsh red sunrise to the Branwen tribe's camp, thanks to a sky thick with industrial haze produced by the giant city north of them. The whole group was awake with the sun, shuffling around camp, faces covered to blunt the acrid punch of the smog from Vacuo. As heavy as the air was with that noxious cloud, something else dominated the camp's atmosphere: nervousness. Cinder glided among the crowd like a ghost, compelled to gauge the mood of the tribe by the woman who commanded it. As she went, she informed the adults about a meeting to be held shortly.

One couple stopped her near the enclosure meant for the bait children. "Ah, Miss Fall? We haven't seen Miss Branwen leave her tent in days," said the young man as he brushed away his deep gray hair. "We're, um, we're a little concerned. And, like, where is Emerald? The kids are getting upset that she hasn't been around to read for them-"

"She's in charge of doing scouting for raids too, isn't she?" said his visibly pregnant partner. Her lustrous gold locks fluttered in the morning breeze. "I'm worried about my baby."

Cinder donned her brightest smile – an expression which barely moved her thin lips – and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. She had to raise her voice to ensure it would carry over the wind, but it remained rather monotone regardless. "Emerald's skills were needed by one of Lady Branwen's sisters; I'm sure she will be back shortly. As for raids, that's why we've been training our new friends. No need to worry, Maize. Such unease isn't good for your baby either."

"Easy for you to say, you never look worried about anything." He tensed up a bit when she directed her yellow eyes his way. "Ah, just a joke, ahahaha. We all appreciate your calm. Yep. Sets a great example!"

"Ever the comedian, Rucio." Her focus went back to an antsy, restless Maize – whom she knew was a total gossiper – to use her loose lips to help spread an important message. "We're going to have a whole-tribe meeting shortly, perhaps thirty minutes or so. I'm sure Lady Branwen will be happy to hear your concerns."

"Oh!" Out came her Scroll immediately so she could tell her closest friends about this bit of news. "Good! I was worried that she was sick, or something, like geez. This air is awful."

All three of them, plus the other passersby, came to a halt or ceased what they were doing when the wind abruptly shifted. A terrific gale swept in from the south end of the camp, strong enough to rattle the tents. Some of the smaller members of Raven's flock even stumbled, although others were there to keep them upright or get them back on their feet. In seconds, fresh air swept out the fumes, but the higher cloud deck of pollution remained. As the wind calmed down, some were confident enough to remove their masks and sniff the air, including Rucio. "Hey! What do you know?" he chirped happily.

"Providence strikes again," Maize added, head bowed and arms crossed in prayer. "May we ever be in Their favor."

Cinder stared toward the big top, eyes squinted slightly – she had a distinct suspicion that the gods weren't to blame for this one. "Yes… may we ever be in Their favor. Excuse me," she said, turning away and walking toward the big red tent.

What she found upon opening the entrance flap a few moments later proved to be no surprise: Amber, staff extended and eyes closed in concentration as she used the true art to cleanse the camp of its polluted fog. She stood near the inactive fireplace at the back of the tent, holding her weapon horizontally out in front of her chest with both hands. An exhausted-looking Raven sat at the low oaken table to the left of the area. "Weren't you told not to use your power unless it was an emergency?" she chided Amber. "This asshole can fly across continents. Fuck, he might be anywhere."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let Vacuo's hubris damage even _more_ tiny lungs." Her staff retracted with a satisfying series of clicks. Cinder received a blank look as she put the weapon away in its holster. "Well?"

"Concern. Not yet fear. I told Maize about the meeting – the whole desert will know of it soon."

Raven took an unsteady sip of tea to help calm her nerves. "How much time did you give us?"

"Half an hour."

"Fuck." She hauled herself to her feet and stretched obnoxiously. "We better get our shit together fast, then-" Another staring match between Amber and her most trusted lieutenant replaced Raven's words with a bitter growl. "Gods damn it, you two, get over it! You're going to be sisters soon!"

"I cannot believe we are trading Lapis for _you_ ," Amber spat, ignoring Raven's displeasure. "You're… you're a monster. No better than the Grimm."

Raven could only roll her eyes at this. "Oh, like we aren't?"

"At least I _cry._ " More sneering from her caused Amber to bare teeth. "Just because you two are happy to swallow your guilt doesn't make you better than me. Olivine and I were _born_ to accept the mantle. You're both just-" Raven shut her up by storming over and staring her down, nose-to-nose.

"Perhaps we should save this for after the meeting?" Cinder offered, hands clasped behind her back. Despite the fiery tension, her pale face remained as blank as ever.

"No, let her get it out of her system. She's been pissed off for days." Her staring match with Amber continued. "Someone finally knocked you out of your ivory tower and now you wanna pitch a fit. I can take a beating. So can Cinder. Apparently you can't."

Amber's glare became so narrow that she might as well have closed her eyes. "Let's put that to the test, shall we?" she growled, citrine orbs fulgid with the power of her ancient magic.

"I don't think we can fight this enemy and each other at the same time." Cinder's advice went unheard – both Raven and Amber were too busy snarling at each other to heed it. With a tiny sigh, she stepped to the side of their confrontation. "If you attack Lady Branwen, I will come to her defense."

"And I'll scatter your bones across the desert," she snapped.

"Then you'll answer to Salem for killing the successor, won't you?" This fact brought a chilly pall over the showdown; both Maidens took a few uncertain steps back from each other. "I'm not sure you'd escape punishment either," she added, looking at Raven.

With one more snarl, Raven chose to yield first, turning on her heel with a flip of her ebony hair. She couldn't resist a barb on the way back to her seat at the table, however. "Leave it to the exiles to be bigger women than a fucking Maiden."

"That's rich, coming from someone who threw away her own daughter."

Cinder took one step back as Raven dashed over and tackled Amber to the floor. Both of them wrapped their hands around the other's neck. She let them struggle for a moment before a few precisely-aimed launches of primed wind Dust from her red dress induced a forceful separation – Raven tumbled into the pile of cushions, while Amber came to rest dangerously close to the prized pottery collection. Both regarded her with surprise, but Amber alone bared her teeth again. "Do it," Cinder dared her, as unmoved as the huge wooden beams that supported the tent, "sign your death warrant."

"If it gives the Summer Maiden a chance to find someone better than you, gladly," she hissed, hauling herself up and extending her staff in the same motion. "I'd rather transfer her power to Emerald than allow it within a million kilometers of you, you frigid bitch."

"I'm not the one killing Lady Stavros. Why not fight Salem instead?"

Three statues regarded each other in dead silence. Raven's hand rested lightly on the mechanism to activate her sword in case Amber – frozen in a ready stance to charge – actually made a move to attack Cinder, who remained in the exact same posture she held when the conflict started: straight as a board, hands clasped behind her back, and entirely stone-faced. She gazed down at both of them with one yellow eye. Nobody moved.

"Self-preservation," she concluded at last, her unblinking sight locked onto the subtly-trembling Amber. "The same reason as Lady Branwen and Lady Duprix. I'm not judging you. It simply is what it is."

"Then the same applies to you, you hypocrite! You rolled over the second she even whispered about choosing you-" Her words ceased when Cinder's lips bent, just barely, with a smile.

"Cinder…" Raven warned, comfortable enough to stand up, but not to move. "She _can_ kill you, stop provoking her." Both watched as she produced and tapped at her Scroll, then held the device out to Amber. "What are you doing?"

"Look at it," she said directly to the agitated Fall Maiden.

Amber snatched it away from her with an outstretched arm and a hint of gravity magic, glaring all the while. On its screen was a picture; a slightly younger Cinder, with her hair slicked back and a huge, toothy smile on her face. Those yellow eyes shone with glee – she was even cheerful enough to throw up not one, but two V-signs with her hands. After a few glances between the picture and the young woman herself, she still couldn't believe they were the same person. "This is…" she mumbled, realizing where the buildings in the background were, "You… you went to Shade Academy?"

"Yes." Another expert flick of wind Dust shards knocked the Scroll out of Amber's hand and sent it flying back into her own. Once she put it away, she reached up in preparation to lift the locks of dusky black hair that covered the left side of her face. An exclamation of protest from Raven caused her to hesitate only briefly. "My sister should know this." She flipped up her hair after speaking.

Amber needed a moment to let her sight adjust in the dim, flickering light of the tent's lanterns. Cinder's dull left eye caught her attention first; it lacked even the glassy sheen of her right, which looked dead enough, but the longer she looked at that region of her pallid face the more something seemed off. One step forward helped her deduce the problem – there was a visible dent in the forehead above her left eyebrow, a roughly circular spot where some sort of impact had depressed her skull. As she watched, Cinder ran fingertips through it, showing just how deep it was. "Wh-what is that?" she finally stammered.

"There was some kind of incident during training. I can't remember what." She returned her hair to its usual position. "There were doctors who said my Aura tried to protect me, but the impact led to skull spalling. Fragments of metallized bone sheared off and traveled into my brain." Here she paused to stare at the picture one more time, then turn off her Scroll. "I have lost much of the person I was in this photograph. Memories... emotions. They told me I was lucky I could even breathe on my own."

A thunderstruck Amber retracted her staff again and turned away to think. "And then they exiled you."

"Yes. Even after my physical recovery, my reduced affect and apathy did the same thing to the other students that it does to you – that it still does to some members of this tribe. I was ejected on, as I recall, 'emotional safety concerns'." She watched Amber sit at the low table; with most of the tension gone, Raven joined her soon afterward.

"Does Salem know this?"

"Yes. We made a mutual agreement. I know what accepting the mantle does to one's Aura. Perhaps…" Sadness clouded her gaze for a split second. "I still remember flashes of the girl I used to be. Perhaps the Maiden's might can bring her back."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Amber sighed, face hidden by her left hand.

"I wanted you to come around on your own, but I think we're outta time," Raven explained, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "At least she got us to calm down. I'm sorry about choking you out."

"I… probably deserved it." She wiped her eyes with a sigh. "I've never been, just, I don't know, beaten up before. Tock never stood up to me like Riese did. I don't know what to think right now."

"Yeah. We – our Maidens, I mean – probably haven't had an opponent like this for a while. Mine straight up just... quit. I want his ass for what he did to Vernal, but..." Movement at the front of the tent caused Raven to cut herself short; Mercury poked his head into through the entrance flaps with a typical grin plastered across his face. "Oh, gods, what exploded?"

"Got a buncha people out here wonderin' _where_ the actual meeting is, chief," he said, inviting himself inside. Raven and Amber's slightly disheveled states caused an arched brow, as did the missing shards in the Dust pattern on Cinder's red dress. "Uh…"

"Focus, Mercury," Cinder advised tonelessly; one look over her shoulder caused Raven to issue a half-shrug, telling her to say whatever she felt like. "Have them gather at the north gate."

"If you say so. I think they're all ready, so, you know. Whenever you wanna start." He flipped them a wave and ducked right back outside, where they heard him whistle for attention from a crowd they couldn't yet see.

"Showtime." Raven stood up again, kicked the great gray sword mechanism into her ready left hand with unnecessary flourish, then offered her right to help Amber stand. "I hope they buy this shit."

"They will believe whatever you tell them," Cinder said, busy with replacing the spent Dust in her embroidered rainbow of pain. These reloads came from a pouch strapped to her right thigh, usually hidden by the golden hemline of her dress.

"I know, but this is a lot of change in a hurry." She eyeballed the notes written on her Scroll, free hand ran through her ebony locks over and over for comfort.

"We're at war," Amber noted, face solemn. "Again. I don't think her gospel ever attracted anyone like _this_ , though." She walked toward the flaps with Raven at her side, although they hesitated when Cinder didn't follow. "You're… not mad at me, are you?"

One shake of her head. "I've no time for anger. I'll follow you once I'm done reloading." Once they were gone, however, she stopped inserting shards into the empty spots and took out her Scroll again to look at the same picture she showed Amber. Her eye lingered on the image until it shed a tear, which ran down her expressionless face.


	21. The War Now

His arm was numb. Not in the tingly way caused by lack of circulation, but a more fiery kind of sensation resulting from yet another clash between shield and short sword. Even as Pyrrha attacked again – so furiously that a grunt escaped her glossy lips – Jaune found himself able to hold his ground. A sword slash from above his head failed to move him; he simply crouched, soaked up the impact with his shield, then jabbed out carefully with his own blade to poke his sparring partner gently in the tummy. "Tag. You're it," he quipped through gasps for air.

Pyrrha laughed heartily and stepped back from the point of his silver blade. "I suppose I am!" she replied, rotating both shoulders to keep her arms loose. "Shall we take a breather?"

"Yes, please, oh gods I can't feel my legs." While he leaned on his sword – and a second later, Pyrrha herself – for support, he looked left at the other occupants of the combat arena – Weiss, Nora, and Blake, all huddled around each other in a quiet conference. "Ohhhhh boy it's never good when Nora grins like that. Hey! What are you planning over there?"

"It's not her plan, it's mine," Weiss corrected him. With a shared nod, the gaggle broke up. Blake spooled out the black ribbon from Gambol Shroud and wrapped it around her wrist as Nora scattered small wind Dust crystals on the floor a few meters away. "Do you have a target?"

"Yes." Blake pointed at one of the exposed steel beams which held up the roof of the arena. "Right there. If I can get any height, I guess."

Nora winked playfully, twirling her warhammer. "You leave that to me. Let's do this!"

Blake backed up toward the edge of the raised platform before sprinting forward, her boots clacking sharply against the stone tile. Just as she was about to step on the scattered green crystals, she jumped and folded her legs up underneath herself, her Aura concentrating itself in her shins for what would come next. The Dust detonated as she passed overhead, thanks to Nora's silent prayer; the second she detected herself flying upward instead of forward, she flung her weapon out with a squeaky roar. The pistol assembly managed to wrap around the steel beam – one stiff flick of her wrist snapped the ribbon taut and the spool mechanism in her weapon drew her in. By the time it all ended, she found herself hugging the beam with arms and legs, many precarious meters above the floor. The others gathered to look up at her.

"Neat!" Nora yelled with both hands cupped around her mouth. "That scream was really cute, by the way."

"Uh, thanks?" she called back, her lower body scrambling for purchase as she tried to unwrap Gambol Shroud from the around the thick beam. "I'm… I'm a little bit stuck."

Before Weiss and Nora could figure out how exactly to get her down, footsteps attracted everyone's attention – they turned to see Ilia lead a pack of Haven students into the arena. Among their number was Ciel, though Penny was conspicuously absent, and Qrow, shuffling along with his hands in his pockets and a distant look in his red eyes. Once Ilia processed the situation, she dashed ahead and came to a sliding stop underneath her best friend with both hands on her head. "Blake?!" she yelled. "How on Remnant did you get up there?!"

"That is a pretty good question," Qrow admitted while smoothing back his hair. "What's goin' on?"

"We're experimenting!" Nora sang cheerfully. "Don't even worry, she's totally fine." Her eyes then went to Weiss. "Dust again on the way down? I still have some wind stones left."

"Hmm…" She rubbed her chin with slender fingers. "She just barely made it up there. I'd try fire, but I don't think she's quite as durable as Yang is. I'll do it." Qrow's deadpan gaze shook her train of thought for a moment. "I assure you, we have this under control."

He watched Blake continue to scramble along the beam, grinning wryly, but ready to intervene in case she fell. "Do ya, now."

"Of course!" Weiss discharged a fuzzy gray stack of two larger-than-usual Glyphs with one swing of her rapier. "Blake!" she shouted, maintaining a fencer's pose as she funneled her Aura to keep them powered. "Jump! Or fall. Fall safely, though!"

"Are you crazy?!" was her frantic answer – though with her lower body strength quickly expiring, Blake realized she didn't have much choice. "Uhhh…"

Jaune had an idea; after handing his sword and shield to Pyrrha, he stood underneath Weiss' Glyphs with arms spread wide. "Hey, just fall on me, it's fine. I should be pretty easy to hit."

"She can fall on both of us." Pyrrha set all of their hardware, hers and his, on the floor and walked over to join him. "We'll catch you! I promise!"

After one deep swallow and a mumbled "Why did I agree to this," for good measure, Blake aimed as best as she could and released her grasp on the beam. Many of the students emitted some kind of gasp or yell – Ilia beat them all with an _incredibly_ shrill scream – but Weiss' adjustments and her good guess ensured she fell into the Glyphs, slowing her velocity from doomed feline cannonball to anxious snowflake. This resulted in a rather anti-climatic shared catch by Pyrrha and Jaune. She stumbled away and dropped to her knees as soon as they put her down. "Okay… I think it's someone else's turn now…" she stated weakly. Ilia tackled her clear of the whole group in a powerful hug. "Gah! Wait a minute!"

"Okay, okay, that's enough of that," Qrow said over the sporadic clapping and laughing of the other students. "Mind if I borrow the arena for a little bit? You kids aren't the only ones getting ready for the wilderness survival courses. 'Sides, ain't it better for birds to roost outside?"

"Whose stupid idea was this, because I _know_ it wasn't yours!" Ilia demanded. She looked back when everyone pointed at Weiss. "You will never see my vengeance coming," she added with a grin.

"Yes, well, you can defend your girlfriend's honor later," Weiss replied, haughtiness _mostly_ feigned as she looked down her nose.

Blake flailed her arms as best she could, given the whole Ilia still wrapped around her. "She isn't my-!"

The redhead wiped tears of amusement – and relief – from her eyes, somehow finding the clarity to give Jaune back his weapons and to collect hers. "Sorry for the fuss, Professor Branwen," she apologized while herding her friends toward the nearest exit corridor. Only four emerged into the brisk evening air at first; Blake arrived a moment later, groaning with annoyance as she examined Gambol Shroud for any damage. Her wavy locks were a bit more ruffled than usual.

"That has to be what a Beringel grapple feels like," she muttered upon arrival. "Well, it works, but I think we need a little more planning than just 'throw someone and see what happens'."

"Agreed." Weiss stared at her Scroll, frowning with disgust about how much Aura she'd used. "And I clearly need to hit the gym more."

"Or eat. You're waaaaay too thin!"

Jaune stared at Nora. "She can't. You never leave any for the rest of us."

"Hey, these guns need ammo!" she retorted, flexing her left arm. The humor quickly drained from her face. "Speaking of… how's Ruby?" Weiss and Blake deflated almost instantly. "That bad, huh?"

"She wants to be sure that everything is all right," Weiss finally offered. "I'd feel the same way if I suddenly had a hallucination."

"Maybe she's just stressed out?" Jaune shrugged when the girls looked his way. "It's hard being a leader. I couldn't do it." His smile at Pyrrha caused her to blush faintly.

Blake's face lit up with an idea. "Hey, her appointment with Professor Peach shouldn't take too long, right? Let's go meet her and Yang at the meditation hall. Maybe have dinner together. You know. Be supportive?" Her feline ears twitched at Nora's cheer. "Erm… you want to come too?"

Weiss rolled her icy eyes. "Please, Blake, you know she'd never turn down food."

"I'll go get Ren!" she chirped, folding her weapon into grenade launcher form so it would be a little easier to run. "Meet you there!"

"Um…" Blake shrugged at her back as she tore off down the walkway before looking over at Jaune and Pyrrha. "What about you two?"

Pyrrha cocked her head, glanced at Jaune, noticed he still seemed to be winded, and decided to delay for a moment. "Go on ahead, we'll catch up. I think Jaune needs a minute."

"Naah, I'm fine," he lied, mopping sweat off his brow. "Really. All good." The redhead's smile melted his resolve. "Maybe I should sit down. Yeah. We'll catch up." He allowed her to guide him over to the nearest bench as Blake and Weiss waved a goodbye and departed together. "My everything is burning," he whispered harshly as they sat down together.

"You know, you really don't have to push yourself like this," she chided him gently. "You can't become… well, me, I suppose, in a few months. You'll hurt yourself trying." She misread his distant expression, assumed offense, and hastily added, "Not that I'm insulting you. You really are making progress."

"I kinda do have to push myself, though."

Again, she cocked her head. "Why?"

He cut his blue eyes over and frowned. "Because…" That frown became tight. "You said they'd have to kill you first."

Worry became confusion in her gorgeous emerald eyes until her brain made the connection. Flashes of that battle quickened her breathing. "I…" She fell back against the bench and sighed up toward the ruddy sunset in the east. "I meant it."

"I know. That's why I gotta push." Jaune finally managed a lopsided smile when she looked at him again. "Look at me, man. I don't even have a Semblance. You and Weiss… you can fly. Now Blake can too. Sorta. I'm just me." He cast a forlorn stare at the ground. "I feel like I'm in the way."

"For one thing, most people don't have Semblances," she began, hand on his forearm, "and for another, don't sell yourself short. Nobody thinks you're useless. Especially not me."

"You can literally pick me up and throw me!"

"And vice versa! Ah, with some effort." She found herself blushing again and looked away. "I think you're lovely the way you are."

They spent a few moments in silence, looking at everyone and everything but each other until her words finally sank in. "Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Hmm?"

Their eyes met at last. "Do you like… like me, like me?" His face screwed up. "Whew. I said like too much." It screwed up again when she didn't immediately answer. "Yeah, I figured."

"I—I think I do, actually." His surprised grunt caused her to snort. "Remember the first time we spoke?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh… the airship ride. Right?"

"Yes. You weren't intimidated and you didn't squeal like Ruby. That was a refreshing change."

It was his turn for a confused head tilt. "Whaa… you're not scary, though. You're Pyrrha. Why would I be intimidated?"

She stood up, turned her back, and raised her arms briefly. "Exactly! It was _really_ nice to be taken at face value for once." After a little sigh to settle herself, she sat down again. "I don't think people are necessarily scared of _me_ , but my family name. 'You're Pyrrha'… goodness. I do like the sound of those words."

"Oh. You're welcome, I guess? Still can't figure out why you'd even give me the time of day, though."

"You're kind, you're earnest, you work hard, you're easy to get along with, and you look nice, especially after you shave." A staring match broke out as two Valesian soldiers in blue overcoats wandered by on their patrol of campus. "Too forward?"

Deeply flustered, he rubbed his chin, grew horrified at the stubble, and jumped to his feet. "Shave! Yeah! I should go do that!" He grinned when she busted out laughing. "You really think I'm, I dunno, any good?"

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be training you, you silly!" After a moment, they began walking toward the meditation hall. "If the past few months have taught me anything, it's that life…" Her eyes closed for a moment. "Life is short enough as it is. For us, it could be _really_ short."

"Yeah." His arms swung gently with each slow step. "Everything you said about me is like, triple for you. Except the shaving part. I bet you could rock a beard if you wanted to, though." Her giggles caused another smile. "I guess you're right, though. I didn't expect to be here, but… I'm still gonna do my best. No regrets. No matter what happens."

"I think that's a good outlook." A distant, gruff voice caused Pyrrha's ears to prick a little; both of them turned around and came to a stop to check the source. They found Indigo swearing at a fully-laden pallet as she dragged it along the walkway a few dozen meters behind them. "Oh my. Looks like she could use a hand."

"Gods, this fucking-" she snapped as they arrived, unaware of their presence at first. While she was still wearing tank tops – this one a retina-destroying pink and white polka-dot example with thin shoulder straps – the weather had finally turned cool enough for her to accept wearing something other than ankle skirts. In this case, it was a pair of demure gray cargo pants which were thankfully much easier on the eyes. "What the fuck is in this fucking thing, my gods damn apartment?!" she growled, sweat dripping down her forehead. "This is the last time I do a damn favor for Heather-" She glanced over, saw a smiling Pyrrha at very close range, and jumped back with fright. "Whoa! Geez! You scared me."

"I'm sorry!" She dipped her head politely. "Need some help?"

"No, I'm…" Anger faded as she ceased struggling with the pallet, ostensibly to rest, but really to tug uneasily at her thin blue ponytail. "I'm good."

Jaune looked around the pallet for the other half of the duo. "Where's your buddy?"

Indigo glanced up at him before she chose to stare at her blue sneakers. "He—I had to let him go." Another glance up at their confused faces. "It's not important." When Pyrrha opened her mouth to change subjects, however, she freely spilled every single bean. "Someone kidnapped him from the shop and I am not about that bullshit, so I had to move on."

"Whoa, what?" he exclaimed, hands on his head. "Is everyone okay?"

"I wasn't there. He's fine. I guess. I haven't talked to him since." Indigo took up the handle of the pallet jack again and started tugging, weighed down both by the physical load and her own grumpiness. "I better get going, this is gonna take long enough."

Pyrrha, unwilling to watch her struggle, got behind the pallet and pushed. Jaune pitched in a second later. "We're all headed the same way anyway," she said when Indigo groaned loudly. "We can at least give you a push until we get to the meditation hall."

"Ugggggghhhhhh, fiiiiiine," was the whined reply.

"You know, he hasn't spoken much to us either," Jaune noted. "Wonder what he's up to."

"He talks to you?"

"Well, it has been a little while, but I have his Scroll number," Pyrrha noted, head down as she shoved with both hands. "He gave it to me after he taught me the… ah… never mind."

Indigo looked back over her shoulder – not that it mattered, since the boxes were stacked too high for her to see past them. "The Dust thing? Yeah. I know." It didn't matter that other students were scattered all around them; she felt no need to keep her voice low. Not long afterward, her cargo became significantly harder to move as Jaune and Pyrrha broke away – they'd reached their destination. "Oh… fuck, already?"

"Yep. We gotta go check on a friend in here," Jaune explained. "Sorry."

"Ah, I get it. Go on. I'll manage." She waved them off with a sigh. A worried look from Pyrrha, who lingered for a moment, caused her to wave even harder. "Go! I'm fine. I'm a grown-ass woman." As they left, however, she remained, watching them enter the hall. One hand ducked into a pocket and came out with her Scroll. She checked the time. Then she opened her contacts list. His entry was still there; seeing it caused a tremendous grimace, but she crammed the device back into her pocket before the temptation to tap his stupid grinning picture became a little too much. Before she could let it go, it began to ring.

"Indigooooooooooooo!" was the nasally greeting she heard upon raising it to her ear – Schwarze, in full whine mode.

"Stop calling me, I'll get home when I get home," she countered with a grumpy huff. "If you're so damn impatient, why don't you fly your busty beanpole ass out here and help me move this-"

"Actually…" When she next spoke, her voice had returned to normal. "I just had a little chat with Major van Ophoven."

Her blood froze solid. "About what?" she urged, abandoning her cargo to sit on the nearest bench.

"We're being reactivated."

"Wh— _we're_ being reactivated? The hell are you saying, you don't sit ready reserve, I-" A cute little sound told her she had another call incoming – seeing from whom caused her heart to skip a few beats. "Oh fuck me, he's calling right now, I'll call you back." One tap hung up on Schwarze, then another connected her to the new call. "Major."

"Sergeant Stahl. Don't tell me your spotter beat me to it."

She became stiff as a board – the posture of a soldier at attention, even though she was seated. "I hear we're being called up, sir, but she didn't get to tell me anything beyond that."

"Good, it's probably best you hear this from me. We're attaching you both to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 1st Frontier Corps. Her Majesty wants to put a lid on whatever is going on at Beacon Academy."

"The…" She slumped over far enough to brace her upper body with elbows on knees. "Why does the Corps want us back, sir?"

He chortled for a moment. "Come on, Sergeant, you and Voss are the best team they've ever had. We know you won't hesitate to pull the trigger no matter who ends up in your scope, which is a good thing when we're not even sure who the enemy is."

His compliment was a wrecking ball to the chest. "Yes, sir," was all she could manage at first before her face lit up with confusion. "Not sure who the enemy is, sir? Hasn't Opher Riese spoken to anyone in-"

"We haven't gotten around to setting up a meeting with him yet. At any rate, report to brigade HQ at 0800 tomorrow. Oh, and before I go… congratulations on your promotion."

Indigo sat straight up again. "Wh-what promotion, sir?"

"General Zhen personally authorized your advancement to Sergeant First Class to make up for lost time. Oh, and she sent along a message: 'you keep scratching our backs, we'll keep scratching yours'."

"I… I understand, sir," she replied quietly, hands shaking. "What about Diamond Dust? I mean, my shop, sir."

"Calm down, Stahl, it's not like we're sending you to Vytal Island. Just lock it up. It'll be there when you get back. Anyway, that's all from me. Good luck on your deployment."

"Thank you, sir." She hung up, dropped her Scroll in her lap, and buried her face in her hands. "Gods," she sighed between regulated breaths, "just when I thought things couldn't get any fucking worse."

* * *

"But something like this has _never_ happened before!"

Professor Peach tracked Ruby in her orbit around the closed-off meditation pod she was using for their meeting, somewhat surprised that her constant pacing hadn't worn tracks in the wooden floor. She herself was draped across one of two chunky black beanbag chairs, but the other one lacked a dent – because Ruby had yet to sit in it. "The human brain isn't perfect, Ruby. Sometimes it, well, has a hiccup."

"I just—but it was definitely a Razorback! Like, I could see the little nubby armor bits on its shell thingy! It was as real as any of the Grimm out there!" she insisted, pointing at where she assumed the Emerald Forest would be. Her energy failed all at once; she wearily shuffled over to the empty chair and plunged face-first into its fluffy embrace. "I… I swear… I would never point a gun at someone…" she moaned through the fabric.

"I absolutely believe you, Ruby. And I have a surprise!" Peach waited for eye contact before she donned a big smile. Her next words went out the doorway. "Okay, come on in!"

In shuffled a grumpy-looking Emerald, clad in her dark gray hoodie and baggy blue jeans to fight the brisk air – she even wore black sneakers instead of her usual heels. Her hands were rammed into the pockets of her sweatshirt. One glance went to Peach's bespectacled, smiling face; another toward the slack-jawed, stiff Ruby. "Uh… there's nowhere for me to sit."

" _Take my chair_!" Ruby demanded, springing to her feet and motioning at it with both hands. "Take it. Take it!"

Emerald obliged her after a squint, plopping down and folding her arms. "Thanks, I guess."

"Tell Ruby why you're here."

"So she'll stop apologizing to me?" she replied sarcastically.

That set Ruby off again. She went back to pacing. "But I'm sorry! I don't think I've ever been this sorry in my entire life! Forgive meeeeeeee-"

Peach now wore a tiny frown. "Emerald, please."

One annoyed sigh later, she disgorged a rather lackluster and vaguely rehearsed-sounding reassurance. "Because I'm not actually mad at you. You didn't shoot me. That's all that matters."

At first, Ruby didn't quite know how to take her words and simply stood there, trembling vaguely. "You're really not mad?" finally leaked out. When Emerald shook her head, that quivering intensified.

"Uh… are you okay?" she asked, one thin green eyebrow raised. One second later, she was the victim of a high-velocity tackle hug; Ruby connected with such force that she couldn't help but let out a loud grunt.

"Thank you!" she whined, snuggling Emerald as best she could, given that the other half of the hug seemed totally unwilling to reciprocate. "So much!"

"Could… could you please get off of me…"

"Good!" Peach chirped, hands clasped near her chin and smiling broadly. "I think we're all settled here, then?"

Emerald continued to suffer under a clingy Ruby. " _Please_ get off of me…"

"Erm." She finally ended the embrace, rolled backwards in a somersault onto her feet, then spent an awkward moment brushing off her black dress. "I think I still need to get checked out."

Peach's smile faded a bit. "You already passed the psychological assessment. With flying colors!"

"Yeah…" Again, Ruby paced, this time with a slow, anguished shuffle. "That's not what I meant." Both of them looked over as Emerald stood up.

"Riiiiight, this is probably between you guys," she stated, straightening out her hoodie. "Can I go?"

"Yes, Emerald, thank you." Once she left, Peach's lustrous powder blue eyes tracked Ruby until she looked back. "Is there something else you want to talk about?"

A fidgety Ruby could no longer maintain eye contact and glanced away, head hung. "Do you think it's because I have a Semblance? I mean… when mine manifested back at home, they gave dad the book and stuff and then Yang helped me understand it, but… like, everyone else at Signal was okay, and everyone else here seems okay and…" She snorted up a sharp breath, though her tears avoided falling for now. "Am I _not_ okay?"

The smile was gone. Peach awkwardly rose from her bean bag chair and walked over, placing both hands on Ruby's shoulders. "That's a question I can't answer. We don't have the facilities for a proper examination on campus. You'd have to go into Vale – and I can't give you permission for that on my own."

"Should I talk to Miss Goodwitch?"

"I'll do it." Peach gave her a brief hug. "Give it a day or so, think it over. I'll let her know and we'll see if we can get you a shuttle pass. Okay?"

"Y-yeah. Okay." A check of the time on her Scroll caused Ruby to blink. "I guess I should probably go before Yang busts down the wall."

"Very well. See you in class tomorrow!" One more shoulder pat and Peach was on her way out with Ruby close behind. They went in different directions a moment later.

"Bye, Professor! Thank you!" She wandered off toward the entrance all the way at the other end of the hall, expecting Yang by herself, but instead running into her sister, her team, _and_ Pyrrha's team. "When did you guys get here?" she asked with the best smile she could manage.

"They haven't been here too long," Yang explained. "How'd it go? I saw what's-her-name."

"Emerald. And it… went fine, I guess." Ruby fell in beside her as they all began to walk for the exit.

She didn't buy it, of course. "Yeah? You still don't look so good."

"Give me a minute, dang, I just got outta there." It became quiet; when she looked to see why, a tidal wave of concerned staring slammed into her, not just from her sister, but from her whole team and Pyrrha's too. She looked back at Yang. "I asked the question."

"It's not because you have a Semblance, damn it," she replied, suddenly agitated. "You're just tired."

"Yeah, but Blake was super-tired too that one time and I'm pretty sure _she_ didn't hallucinate."

"Erm…" Blake shuffled her feet uncomfortably. "That's true."

"Chalk one up to the inner peace of the Faunus," Weiss mumbled to herself.

"What should we do?" Pyrrha sighed, scratching at her red hair.

"I want to get checked out in Vale. Really checked out." Ruby turned her back on them and stared out the nearest window for a brief moment. "If I can. I need to be sure." Yang's expression – _I'm going too, then –_ she expected, sure, but the look on Weiss' face was a surprise. "Um… what?"

"I should tag along," she said, tossing her ponytail. Everyone looked her way. "What? I wouldn't want this dunce to get lost in the city." Despite the feigned snide in her tone, this sentiment earned her a powerful hug from the girl in question. "Ouch! Agh… be careful, you fool, I'm wearing my sword!"

Blake allowed herself a giggle. "I guess that makes four of us. I've never been inside a Kingdom before, anyway, it could be nice."

"Awwwwww, you guys..."

"Ahhh, I'm sure you're okay," Jaune added with a supportive clap on Ruby's shoulder. "Hey, what if we all went? Could be… I wanna say fun, but, uh..."

"Could we even get passes?" Nora asked while hugging Ren's arm, "We haven't had our exposure checks for the month yet."

"Eh. Let's just see what happens." Yang snickered as Weiss finally wrenched herself free. "You'd better get used to it, Weissy, you're her buddy now."

"I suppose I could have _worse_ friends," was the huffy reply. After straightening out her dress, however, she acquired a more serious expression. "Let's pray all of this is for nothing."

"Yeeeeaaaaaah." Ruby took a slow, deep breath, eyes closed – until an idea forced them right back open. "Hey, um—never mind." She squirmed under their combined attention. "Seriously, never mind. I just had a thought. Dumb thought."

"Out with it, squirt."

"Oh gods why do I ever expect you to let things slide…" After a look around the hall – which included a couple of Semblance dashes around some of the larger leafy plants and the water fountain – to ensure their privacy, Ruby waved them all closer together. "What if… it was the thing?"

"The thing?" Pyrrha asked.

"The flash thing. It seriously messed up my eyes, right? Could it have hurt other stuff too?"

Uncertain glances bounced between everyone in the huddle until Pyrrha spoke up. "I don't know, but… hmm. If that was the case, I think you would have noticed something before now, right?" was the best she had to offer. Ruby grumbled uncertainly in reply.

"Yo, give me Opher's number."

The redhead blinked at Yang. "I—he already said he told us everything he knew."

Those lilac eyes narrowed. "If you believe that shit, I've got an iceberg in Vacuo to sell you. Give me his number."

She couldn't resist the intensity on Yang's face for long – especially not with a worried Ruby standing right there. "I guess he would be our best lead… all right. For Ruby's sake."

" _Awwwwwwwww_ -"

"Don't get her started again," Weiss advised while smacking her hand across Ruby's mouth to stop her from cooing. Noise beyond their little clutch got her attention; she raised up and saw Professor Ozpin enter the hall from the other end. The the clacking of his cane on the wooden floor had given him away. "We'd better pick this up later."

"Okay." With a nod, Ruby led the formation toward him to leave. "Good evening, your Professorship!" she greeted quietly, in deference to the other students meditating around them. "Er, sir. How's things?"

"Hello, Miss Rose." The gaggle behind her caused his brow to raise slightly. "I thought I'd have a little wander over. I knew you had an appointment with Thumbelina, but I didn't think it involved your whole team and Miss Nikos' too."

"We're the Ruby support group," Jaune assured him with a light smile. "You know. Gotta have her back."

"I'm glad to see she has such good friends. Actually, running into you here saves a trip for all of us. Would you follow me for a moment?" Ozpin moved back outside with the eight kids in tow – while there were still people moving about on the walkway, it was certainly less crowded than the hall they'd just left. "Much better. I apologize in advance for the inconvenience, but we'd like to do your monthly checks right now."

"But we were just about to go eat," Nora whined.

"Is something wrong, sir?" Pyrrha asked, hands clasped behind her back.

"Not at all," he replied, a calm smile on his wizened face. "Our military friends would like to speak to you all in Vale tomorrow morning; this is merely standard procedure. Everyone who visits Army General Headquarters gets an exposure check beforehand."

Yang, who had been fluffing her copious locks, let her arms drop in surprise. "They want us to come to them? Like… in the Government District?" Ozpin nodded at her. "Shit. I should find something nice to wear, then."

"You should stop _cussing_ , dang it!" Ruby chided before her attention returned to the Headmaster. "She does have a point, though, I… I can't wear my combat kit. It's not fancy enough."

Ozpin let out a measured laugh. "Miss Rose, you're going out there for an interview, not to enlist. So long as you don't show up in your pajamas, I don't think they'll mind."

"If you're so worried, I do have a few spare outfits that might fit you… as long as you don't mind wearing white."

"Geez, Weiss, you're generous as hell today! Feeling all right?"

"What is that supposed to mean, exactly?!"

Ruby looked back and snapped a "Shush!" at her sister and teammate. "Do you want us _now_ now, sir?" Again, he nodded. "All right. We'll be at the infirmary in a shake."

"Thank you. Before I go…" Ozpin closed the distance slightly to avoid eavesdropping by any of the other students walking around. "I do appreciate your discretion about the Dust matter. If the Army decides to incorporate it into their training doctrine, we'll have it in ours not long afterward." He paused for a sigh. "Though I do wish Mister Riese was a bit more cooperative."

"He might be." Pyrrha smiled at Ozpin's mild confusion. "I can get in touch with him. Come to think of it, he might be looking for work now. Perhaps he'd sign on here?"

"Wait, what?" Ruby asked over her shoulder. "I thought he worked for gun friend-"

"We'll explain later," Jaune whispered back.

"The point is… he may listen to us." She had to move her long red ponytail back into position after a stiff breeze.

"He _did_ seem willing to risk his life to help you." For a moment, he entertained the idea of using them as leverage, but they would be far less useful than his two friends – after all, Academy students were destined for early graves no matter what happened. He smiled again. "Which reminds me – Mister Riese never explained _why_. Do you have any ideas?"

"Ah…" Some awkward shuffling from Pyrrha moved her to the front of the pack. "Miss Stahl thinks it's because I look like his girlfriend. His, erm, dead girlfriend."

"That's kinda weird," Nora said, face screwed up slightly. Ren only shrugged.

"Help is help. But yeah. Little bit." Yang checked the time on Beacon Tower's massive clock and waved for attention from Ozpin. "Yo, can we go ahead? I'm really hungry and these checks take foreeeeever."

"Yes, of course. Sorry for keeping you." Goodbyes were exchanged and he left their company, walking slowly back toward his office in the tower – and slightly underwhelmed by Opher's reasoning. "Love," he sighed. "I miss those days." At least now he had a partial description for Opher's girlfriend – something which might get him closer to this edition of Lady Tanager's stubborn legacy. He summoned his irascible Winter Maiden, via Scroll call, to pass on that info. "Are you still at the dorms?"

"Yeah… why?" she asked, her voice somewhat groggy.

"I may need you out in the field shortly. I've just learned something interesting about our little problem."

That perked her up right quick. "Fine, old man. I'll get my gear."

* * *

It wasn't the rejection itself that really, truly bothered him – he'd earned it by not being immediately upfront about what had happened at Diamond Dust that morning. No, that loss he would take. It wasn't that they had yet to speak to him, either; if the unending, miserable years of his life taught him anything, it was patience. What kept him in his darkened apartment for more than two days, so far, stood in the same spot, staring out the window at Vale as the sun rose and set, was the double-edged sword of Indigo's resemblance to his mother. As positive as it had been the first time he saw her, like encouragement from beyond, now it felt that her ghost scolded him.

Effectively, he'd been sent to his room without dinner – except Opher himself was the source of his own punishment. This mental chasm was much different than the hole he fell down when Carmine disappeared – thank the gods for that, because staying in his apartment for 1,500 years probably wasn't an option – but the whole thing left him just as empty. He couldn't tell them the _whole_ truth; they wouldn't believe it even if he did. He'd given them their space, too, while remaining awake nearby in case something stupid did happen. Out of sight. Permanently vigilant. A bipedal security system, just in case they needed him.

They hadn't. Yet. He wasn't sure whether or not to make the first move. Hell, they probably felt the same way. He stared at his open Scroll with a light frown. "One message won't hurt," he mumbled. "Surely we've all cooled off enough by now."

He tested the theory with a succinct apology to his former boss. _I should have told you when you got back. I'm sorry._

No reply. Not unexpected. Opher put the device back in his pocket and stared at the city below. For all of its black vans of imminent doom and child-killing snipers, at least Vale wasn't a canyon in the ice at the literal top of the world. He wasn't technically alone here. And now that his passport was ironclad, backed by the talent of Atlas' Regular Army, he could…

Wait a second. He owed someone else an update about his situation. Snapped into motion by the chance to make one thing right _right now_ , Opher left his window post and entered his bedroom. While searching his duffel bag, he took note of his lack of Dust crystal reserves. "Where is…"

Hiding in one pocket was the object of his search: Nila's business card. He tapped her number into his Scroll and waited.

"You've reached the inbox of Detective First Class Nila Ward. I'm not available right now. Leave your name and number after the tone and I'll get back to you as soon as I can, thanks."

Voicemail. Damn it. Was his new passport the kind of thing he should dump in her message box? No, probably not. "Nila. It's Opher. There's something you need to hear. Call me when you get the chance."

With his options exhausted on that front, Opher put his Scroll away and looked at his Dust reserves, both external and internal. It had taken him months, but he'd finally run out of gravity Dust – and if he was going to figure out what the hell was going on _outside_ these blasted city walls, he'd need to be able to fly more quietly than wind Dust would allow. Besides, with Carmine's distant sisters now on the field, the relative stealth of magic made crystal over the true art would give him an advantage. He emptied everything out of the bag that wasn't a Dust crystal, intent on filling it full of new ones by the time he finished shopping. After blowing literal dust off his hat and shoulders – a testament to how long he'd been standing in one spot – he stuffed his feet into his silver sneakers and walked out. Schwarze's closed door drew his eye, of course. As did Indigo's, farther down. In fact, he even cast a look at Winter's apartment too, wondering why she hadn't gotten in touch – perhaps, he thought with a smirk, that she was too busy dealing with the contents of their last conversation. Suitably prepared, Opher walked down the hall and entered the elevator to leave.

Once on the sidewalk, his Scroll came out again so he could find the nearest Dust shops. The sparse crowd around him filled the air with pleasant, vapid conversation; this meant he only noticed the column of black smoke rising from the northern side of the port district after looking away from his Scroll. "Uh…" he mumbled, face screwed up with concern. "Again?"

An old man with a neat mustache and a sharp suit caught his expression on the way past, and stopped to pat him on the shoulder with a "Don't worry about it, young man, it's under control," before departing just as quickly as he arrived.

"I—okay, I guess?" a startled Opher said.

"It's fiiiiine!" another person called, this one a young woman in a solid green dress, with raven hair, who threw the reassurance at him much as the old man just did. "No problem."

"Right…" Realizing he was the only person _openly_ concerned about the apparent fire, Opher donned an apathetic mask and walked toward it, planning to hit a few shops on the way by. The closest of these stores was about three or four blocks due west.

Off he went through the brisk evening air… and through dozens of people that wouldn't even _look_ at the smoke, lit up by the dying sun as it towered into the sky, much less speak about whatever possible fire was the source. Every time he glanced up, it seemed the column had gotten larger. By the time he reached his first destination, airships were heading toward the scene. At some point he realized he'd ended up in the commercial district south of the Prisma River – nearly every building he passed by was a shop, selling everything from piper leaves wrapped in tan cigarette paper, to food, to furniture, to clothes. He had time to look at their wares through the windows, as every so often the crowd would bunch up to pass through automatic ID scanners. His first target was a neat little building – apparently new Atlesian-style construction, a glass-and-steel sore thumb stuck out among gray stone facades and sash windows – that he entered after another glance up at the smoke.

When he left that store, stocked up on ice and water crystals but empty-handed when it came to everything else, he noticed police vehicles heading in that direction as well. Just police. Nothing he recognized as any kind of fire truck, nor an ambulance – and research told him what those would look like. He pressed on toward the docks. Their sliver-and-black vehicles moved past at relatively high speed, flashing lights and flicking on their sirens to move taxis or trucks out of the way. The people around him paid no mind to the noise – but every time someone else caught Opher watching for too long, they would engage him with a reassurance.

"Don't pay it any attention, it's fine!"

"Ah, nothing's goin' on, don't even give it a second thought."

"I'm sure they have everything well in hand, son."

They never seemed to say this to each other, only to him; after all, nobody but Opher seemed to be interested in the situation.

Except, he noticed after a few more blocks of travel the next shop, for the children. The younger they were, the more visceral their reactions – those who seemed to be of single-digit ages had no issues pointing up at the billowing tower of black smoke while blurting out a nervous "Mommy, look!" or issuing silent, uneasy tugs at their guardians' pant legs or skirts. Preteens seemed to occupy the same worry bracket as Opher himself did, firing looks at the police cars and the smoke; as he observed, he began to catch non-verbal cues from the adults directed toward them. Smiles. Waves. The occasional shoulder pat. Then the kid would look away. Teenagers pretended to be too busy with their Scrolls to care, but they weren't immune from sneaky glances. Opher almost walked right past the next Dust shop, lost in thought. A brief jaunt in this red-brick structure yielded _some_ yellow electric Dust, at least, but not much.

"Damn," he mumbled under his breath, staring into his open bag once he got back outside. "Didn't think I _actually_ needed to go across town." One more look at his Scroll map, where he saw a somewhat familiar name: Rainglass. Her shop wasn't the closest, but its presence on his screen told him just how close he'd gotten to the port district. Instead of hitting the next nearest store, he made a beeline for hers instead, more curious about the fire than resupplying his Dust.

This took some serious walking; enough time passed that the billowing tower of smoke was cut in half by shadows cast from the mountains to the far east. Only the top of the cloud was lit when he caught sight of Heather's store – and from this close distance, he could hear the dull tones of roaring fire. Far fewer people were out and about, as well, but those on the sidewalks with him seemed just as determined to ignore the problem as everyone else. Heather's glass-fronted, cinder block establishment was perhaps eight, maybe ten times larger than Diamond Dust, and unlike Indigo, she had multiple employees. Opher wandered in through the double doors and found a few other shoppers – plus a huge collection of crystals – waiting for him. The owner herself was behind the counter along the right-hand well. "Hey!" she said, smiling when his dull green eyes met her cheerful steel blue ones. "I remember you. Opher, right?"

"Yep." Like Indigo, she also had a glass display case for a counter – it contained, among many other things, exactly four small purple gravity Dust crystals. "Oh, finally, I've been all over the place looking for some of these. How much?"

"Thirty thousand for the set – and, no, we can't let them go individually, either."

He almost dropped his duffel bag in surprise. "I— _what_. It'll take me a year to make that much money." His face softened with regret. "Or it would have, I guess." He met Heather's confused look with a weak smile a moment later. "Indy had to let me go."

"Aw, that's too bad. Hey, are you looking to stay in the game? I can always use an extra courier."

Before Opher could answer, a tremendous noise and vibration rattled the building. It was potent enough to dislodge some of the displays, including some of the carefully-arranged stones in the display case – and to draw a small crack in the corner of one of the large glass windows up front. After some initial, silent shock, everyone else went right back to what they were doing, including Heather, whose face said she was still waiting for an answer. "Uh, are you sure it's safe to be open?" he asked. "That sounded pretty bad."

Her smile never wavered. "Nah, it's fine. I was open through the last fire. It should go out pretty soon."

The longer he gazed at her, the more he realized how hard she was suppressing her worry. Indigo, Schwarze, Nila, even the kids at Beacon had taught him what to look for in that regard. "Oh. I'll make this quick anyway and get out of your hair." He excused himself to move through the shop and pluck a few crystals off the shelves – he gave up on getting the gravity stones, which were far out of his financial reach – then returned to the counter. "This should do it, I think."

"Yep yep!" Heather went about ringing up his purchase. "We need to scan your ID for purchases over two hundred Lien."

"Fine." He handed her his new chip.

"Ah, I figured you were Atlesian… oh. Wow. You were in the Regular Army up there? Um… geez. Thanks for your service."

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled while taking back his chip and dropping a Lien card on the counter.

"Hee hee, bashful. Indigo's the same way. No wonder you two hit it off." Heather swiped his Lien and returned the card while sliding a neat little white bag with her shop's fancy script logo across the counter. As he picked it up, another, slightly less potent, rumble battered the structure. "Seriously, hit me up if you need some work!"

"I'll… think about it, I guess." Opher moved toward the door, but before he could reach it, a police officer poked his head in.

"Close it up," he said to Heather. "Everyone please head south or east. Just as a precaution."

They acted without hesitation and almost in unison; customers put back the items they had no chance to purchase, while Heather's employees either walked out the door or went into the back to tell those who hadn't heard the order to leave. Heather herself stood by the entrance, holding one door open so people could leave without any delay.

"Go on," she told Opher when they were the only two left. "You first. Go." His quizzical look made her giggle – it came out nervous due to the general situation. "Pff, my grandfather was in the Valesian Navy. The captain is always the last off the boat, right?"

That resolve earned her a little smile. "Take care of yourself. I don't want Indigo to lose a friend. She ain't got many."

They split up once they left the shop; people generally moved toward the commercial district he'd left on his way here, shepherded by smiling, placid police officers in their gray coats. That was the direction Opher chose to go. Conversation, what little there was to hear, seemed utterly calm – although, once more, the children were the most emotional.

He went with the flow until he reached a cross street and looked left. Dusk meant he could see the light of the fire at the base of the gigantic tower of smoke – yellow and orange tones, mostly, plus that distant fearsome groan. He also caught a glimpse of some red, boxy vehicles with flashing red and white lights. One block later, while the police assisting with the evacuation were distracted by some couples with unhappy children, he ducked out of the crowd and into an alleyway, hellbent on rushing north to reach the disaster. The sidewalks and roads were deserted within two blocks; shortly, he reached a steel-truss cantilever road bridge that stretched a few hundred meters across the Prisma River. A police roadblock prevented him from using the bridge itself, but from here he could see the source of the fire: one of the large oil refineries that turned crude from the sands of Vacuo into usable fuels for a myriad of Valesian industries. Several smokestacks and fractionating columns – long, stretched out silver cylinders with hemispherical tops, coated in metal pipes and scaffolding – jutted into the air in front of the giant column of smoke erupting from the complex.

Before any of the cops spotted him, Opher dashed behind a building to think. "How the fuck can I get across the river…" he mumbled, looking around for a good entry point. He looked up and noticed the wind seemed to be carrying the noxious cloud almost directly overhead. It was close – close enough to fly into. In preparation, he crammed all the colors of Dust crystals he had into his mouth, chewed on them uncomfortably for a moment, then swallowed the shards. The moment they reached his stomach and began to break down, he blasted off, straight up, into the smoke. Once concealed, it was easy to go against the flow and follow it back to the source – though the acerbic nature of the cloud made breathing less than pleasant.

He dropped out of the smoke once the heat and light became intense enough, landing in what seemed to be the center of hell on Remnant. Burst pipes were all around him, belching noisy torrents of flame fueled by their contents. Metal frames were warped in the blistering air. Even parts of the pavement seemed to be melted, though fortunately not the area on which he stood. More ice crystals went into his mouth so his body could stay cool – not that the heat could really hurt him, he just wanted to make it easier to concentrate. No workers were in sight; a few buildings ahead seemed like a good place to start looking, so Opher wind-charged through the inferno to reach them and shouldered down the door once he arrived at the nearest entrance. This building was empty. Back out he went, just in time to be thrown into the air by another explosion. Instead of trying to resist the shockwave, however, he used it to land on the roof of the tallest building in the cluster and gain entry via the roof access. In here was a squared-off, spiral staircase which circled around a column of white pipes and valves – and, more importantly, a few people hunkered down in the corner a few flights down, all dressed in drab green jumpsuits and white hard hats.

"Um, who are you?" a silver-haired, red-eyed young woman said when Opher arrived, noting his street clothes and lack of head protection. She was huddled with four others, two more women and two men, who all looked up at him with confusion. Sweat glittered on all their faces.

He examined the state of his precious hat while replying, "Not important. How do I get you outta here?"

One of the men, blue-eyed with a closely-trimmed beard, blinked with surprise. "Excuse me? We can't leave, we came in here because of the explosions-" Another such blast cut him off, shaking the whole staircase and causing everyone but Opher to flinch. "L-l-like I said," he picked up when it became relatively still again, "we're stuck. There's no way we can get to the coffin."

Opher took up a position in front of them on one knee. "The what?" he asked loudly.

Another woman, green-eyed with dull brown hair, explained. "The coffin! It's the underground reinforced concrete shelter in the middle of the complex! If we can't get there, the firefighters won't be able to recover us when the fire burns out! We'll get blown to pieces!"

The building shook against another detonation; Opher looked back over his shoulder toward the direction from which the awful noise came. "They can't put the fire out themselves?"

Silver hair replied with bad news. "No way! We just got a fresh load of crude, the pipes are full of oil and distillates! All the water in the river wouldn't put this out!"

"If I help you out of here, can you show me where it is?"

"That's suicidal!" green eyes shouted. "The ground entrance is blocked, anyway, we're trapped!" She squealed with terror when Opher lifted them all in the gentle hands of his gravity magic, complete with arm motions to ensure they understood what was happening. "Wh—we're f-flying!"

"When we get to the roof, show me where to go!" he yelled back while putting on his hat. His floating, flailing cargo hovered along after him as he scaled the stairs; their screaming intensified once they reached the roof access door. "Listen! I won't let anything happen to you, but you need to tell me where your shelter is!"

The other man finally spoke up, a young, black-haired, clean-shaven guy with terrified brown eyes. "It's—it's in the concrete pad between here and the north storage tanks! Look for the big white cylinders, four of 'em, in a line, then look down for the steel posts with the green lights on top!"

"Seems easy enough." Opher punted the door open and stepped back into the conflagration. One quick glance told him there were fewer of the silver columns than before – some of them had been replaced by torn metal and jets of fire, which added to the smoke still pouring up into the dusk sky. Another glance behind him revealed the promised storage tanks. He shuffled his charges toward the far edge of the roof, looked down, and saw the posts and a large metal hatch placed between them. "Got it. Clench your asses, we're leaving!"

All of them either jumped or were hauled via true art off the roof and dropped toward the ground, shrieking all the way despite falling no faster than detached bird feathers. Opher increased that velocity when another enormous blast caused the building behind them to partially crumple. Once they reached the ground, he waved them toward the posts – they needed no further urging to run for their lives. He caught up to them as the two men started to open the hatch.

"Gods help me, how did you… how did you do that…" silver hair gasped, body wilted by the heat. She yelped with fright when a cocoon of ice embraced them, waved into existence by Opher's nonchalant motions.

"Dust. What a concept," he joked while helping tug the heavy door open. "Okay, kids, in we go."

The hatch led to a concrete, cylindrical shaft that went straight down, featuring a ladder to climb and barely enough space for a person to use it. Opher was the last to enter, though he didn't bother closing the hatch as he was too busy making sure his duffel bag could come with him. Several moments of climbing later, he reached a dimly-lit tunnel that was large enough in diameter for him to stand up. The refinery workers were already some distance ahead.

"How far underground are we?" he asked, voice echoed by the unyielding concrete.

"I forget how many meters it is. We're probably close to the water table," green eyes replied. She came back to hug him a second later. "Thank you. My family… it would have been so hard for them."

He waved off her gratitude. "Eh."

Bearded blue-eyes seconded her emotion. "Seriously, man. Who knows how many lives you saved."

"What? Pretty sure it was five…" The tunnel ended, becoming an entrance into a huge concrete box full of other workers. While most were in green jumpsuits, some wore distinctly more office-oriented clothing – probably management types, Opher decided. Dozens of sweating people were present. "Oh, we're here. Hey, who's in charge? Are there any people missing? I'll go back up and find 'em."

A headcount was in order, something that took a little bit. "All presented and accounted for," one of the women in a skirt and blouse said afterward. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Doesn't matter." Opher dropped his bag on the floor and took up standing at the entrance with his back to them. "So you just stay in here until this burns out?"

Silver hair had the answer. "Pretty much, even though it might take days."

"Days? What are you gonna do in here until then? Is this like a whole bunker complex or something?"

"Well, no, we're going to leave the hatch shut," another manager, this one an older, bald man, explained. "Or, we will, once you get out. I don't think we can trap a random civilian down here. Seriously, where did you come from?"

"Leave? He's stuck with us, it's awful up there. The pump tower almost got leveled on our way here."

"The hatch isn't even closed," green eyes pointed out. "Mystery guy didn't shut it."

Opher turned to face them at last, intending to figure out exactly what amenities this bunker had to offer for a long-term stay. Many pairs of eyes met his – resigned, terrified, hopeless stares washed over from all angles, save from those huddled together on the floor in hugs to weep their pain together. "Trap…" he said, mostly to himself. Then it hit him: he couldn't see any air vents, which explained why it was so cold and clammy. "There's no ventilation in here?"

"I mean… we don't need it," silver hair said. "We don't call it the coffin for nothing." The horror which crept into Opher's confused expression made her blink. "Did you see how bad it was up there? If the fire damages the safety valves in section C, it'll hit the storage tanks and level the whole district."

"Unless the fire department stops it," Opher shot back at her. She said nothing. "Right?!"

"The fire department is busy trying to protect the surrounding facilities," an older woman with glasses said – the oldest of the bunch, so far as Opher could tell. If he had to guess, he'd say she was in charge of the refinery. "That's why we're all down here. It's hopeless. The columns got breached."

"You're down here to die."

The old woman nodded. "Better chances for our families to avoid exile because the funerals will have our bodies intact. Less chance for us to get exiled because the government wants someone to punish quietly to keep the city calm. I'm afraid you're in the same situation now."

At last, their resignation spread to him – but only for a fraction of a second. He turned to listen the dull, distant sounds of the cataclysm through the bunker entrance; his ice shield must have melted, finally. The cold air filled up with low voices – workers muttered about the Grimm, about what to put in their wills, how to arrange their services, what they could do to see to their loved ones, even in death. Sure, the size of the settlement was wildly different, but in reality, nothing had changed. Even accidents were battles in their endless war. Now he was in the middle of one. Fresh wounds of dejection and despair bled over scars older than the city above them; combined, their pain was too much for him to bear.

"Hey, man, you should try to get out while you still can. I don't know what you did to help us, but maybe it you can use it to escape. They might not get mad at you since you're just a random guy."

Opher looked back at silver hair, who wore a bleak smile. "No. I'm going to put the fire out." Some of them burst out into startled laughter. "And then all of you are going to go home."

"They'd never let us stay here!" the plant manager said. "The whole city is probably on edge by now and they're going to blame my workers for-"

" _I do not_ _care_ _what this Kingdom thinks_!" he roared, loud enough that the whole group backed away from him in terror until they bumped up against the far wall – in fact, he was _so_ mad that he'd started to hover without realizing it. In midair, he turned back to the entrance. "They'll get the fuck over it. I didn't barge in here to shut a hundred caskets. I'll come get you when it's safe. Keep an eye on my bag."

Magic propelled him down the tunnel, an angry human bullet in a concrete gun. Once at the end, he grabbed the ladder just long enough to aim himself and shot upward, slamming into the half-shut hatch on the way with a terrific clash of steel against his ancient, Aura-driven iron armor. The pump tower he'd rescued the crew from no longer existed; another column explosion left it flattened and scattered across the concrete pad. Wind howled past him as the firestorm heated the atmosphere and fresh air rushed by to replace it. One pathetic stream of water from beyond the refinery wall fell on the inferno without effect as Opher walked toward those bright flames; above him were airships with what looked like huge buckets, trying to position themselves over the fire without much success. Before he could figure out how much damage the complex had already suffered, he needed to slay this screaming monster. Maybe, he thought while rolling up his long white sleeves, it'd be a good chance to vent...

...and to figure out if his magic was dying too.

"All of it," he told himself as white fog collected in the air around him, replenishing itself even as the fire sucked it up. "I want _all of it_. This ends now."

The temperature dropped in a short radius all around his body like a sinking stone – from volcano, to summer afternoon, to winter in the interior of Solitas. It kept falling. It fell until what little water vapor remained in the air became ice that shattered on the concrete. It dropped until his tongue froze to the roof of his mouth when he tried to breathe. His exposed skin succumbed to frostbite until his Aura stopped that process by turning it black with iron. Cold conducted into his body by that metal reduced its temperature too, until some of the fire crystals he'd eaten earlier were forcibly detonated by his essence. He dropped to one knee, then to both knees, his arms crossed over his chest. The concrete on which he'd been standing was covered by solid white ice, even harder than the cement below it. That chill crawled up his legs, freezing him to the ground. He allowed his eyes to shut.

Then he screamed. Ground and pipes and shattered metal were shoved aside by building-sized spikes of frozen water which erupted from the ground in waves of dozens, clenching the fire in their frigid grip and squeezing it to death. Even as they melted into water, more appeared – his magical discharge lasted until the smoke ceased rising into the air and the refinery became silent. The strength he needed to remain upright went with that noxious cloud; Opher slumped awkwardly, face-down against the ice since his legs were still frozen in place. "Unnnh…" he droned a moment later. There was no point in lifting his head to check for more fires – even if he wanted to, thick fog existed where the relatively warm air met his freezing-cold bubble. The outside world was lost behind it.

He listened instead, to the groaning of metal and distant, confused shouting. If there was another fire, it was too quiet for him to hear, so he allowed himself to recover, one cheek still pressed against the ice. "Yeah, that's just about right," he mumbled lowly – indeed, his magic seemed to be behaving as expected, which made the state of the Maidens' power even more confusing. "Then why…"

The fog, both mental and actual, began to clear. Opher snapped motions at his legs to melt the ice with the fire Dust in his veins; once he was able to stand, he walked in a large, slow circle to get his feet back under him. More airships were overhead – one even dumped its load of river water on the ice spires, assuming the white haze was still smoke. The fringes of that drop splashed him as he moved toward the hatch while he waved his hands around to blow away the fog with little shots of wind Dust. Firefighters emerged from the haze, clad in heavy yellow coats and pants, with red helmets on their heads. They dragged a flat hose with them to drown out a blaze that no longer existed. "What on Remnant happened here?!" one of them exclaimed upon seeing the massive ice outcroppings.

They looked at Opher, blue-lipped and shivering, his skin a bright red while his Aura continued repairs on frostbitten flesh. Little chunks of ice were still frozen to his gray cargo pants. There were even icicles on the wide brim of his camouflage hat. Some of the cold fog stuck to him as he walked, in a roughly-humanoid shape, like a person hugging him from behind. "I think it's out," he told them on his way by. "If you find any other fires, let me know. I'm gonna go get the people out of the underground thing."

"Hold up… what?" a startled female firefighter asked. "Did you… wait… excuse me?"

She went ignored. Even as he walked toward the hatch, internal discharges of fire Dust melted the ice clinging to his body and clothes; by the time he reached it, he was ice-free and emitting subtle clouds of steam as the water continued to evaporate. After staring into the shaft for a moment, he apathetically fell into it instead of using the ladder. A little twist on his way down the shaft ensured he landed on his feet with a loud clap. "It's over!" he called into the tunnel. "Come on!" A chorus of disbelieving outbursts was his reply. "I'm serious! Get your asses out here!"

Only silver hair was brave enough to approach. "You're… you're serious?" she asked while walking toward him.

"Yeah. What's your name?"

"Arcene. Arcene Wright." She looked up the shaft as Opher stepped back to give her room. "It's awful quiet up there…" Not for long; she squealed as Opher used his magic to gently launch her up so she could verify his claims. When she grabbed the ladder near the top, he let her go. After a quick look around, she shouted again, this time with bewildered amazement, then slid back down the ladder. "Oh my gods?!" she yelled near the bottom, almost falling off when she arrived. "He's not kidding! Holy cow! The fire's out! Everything past the Coriander Road pump tower looks totally intact!" she yelled down the tunnel. "You gotta come see!"

"How is that possible?!" The probable plant manager's voice.

At last, the rest of them began to file out into the passageway, so Opher launched himself up the shaft to make room. People were _everywhere_ on the surface now – firefighters and police searched the complex for further problems, while airships with mounted spotlights cast beams of white on his ice sculpture. He couldn't see any other pillars of smoke rising from the area. A large gathering of gray- and yellow-clad officials were trying to figure out where the ice had come from. "I'm not sure how much damage I did putting this out," he said to the old woman as she climbed the ladder, offering her a hand when she got close. "Might be a good idea to have your guys check the pipes and such."

She didn't reply; the ice wall left her speechless. More of her colleagues emerged from the hatch, one-by-one, and had much the same reaction beyond a few low gasps and one exclaimed "Gods above!" when they saw his handiwork.

Opher stayed near the hatch to help them all onto the surface. Arcene was the last – she had his bag on her shoulder. "I got your bag," she said as he guided her off the ladder.

He took it and draped it on his shoulder. "Thank you. I think I'm done here, so…" Or not; police had finally noticed their presence and were on the way over. "Great."

Arcene doffed her hard hat to smooth down her hair. "Good luck, uh… what's your name again?"

"Opher."

"Huh. Opher. Well, yeah, good luck. And thank you for… whatever it is you did." Arcene took her leave as the old woman recovered her senses and called on them to start securing the refinery's various systems. As they broke up, Opher walked in a totally different direction toward the nearest visible street entrance.

"Excuse me! Sir! Sir!" yelled a squeaky voice, followed by a lower "Dispatch, it's Collins. I've got a—like, a civilian, I guess? I'm going to talk to him," then another shout his way. "Excuse me! Excuse me!"

Opher looked back and found an adorably short police officer in a gray uniform, waving her arms frantically to get his attention, with shiny black hair bouncing all over as she jumped up and down. Her young, tanned face indicated she was probably new to the force – she couldn't have been more than twenty. The little cop almost skipped along in order to catch him. "I hear you," he said, then pointed toward the huge gate to the street outside. "Can we talk out there?"

Noting his calm, the cop relented a little. "Ummmmmm, fine, but I need your name first, please. Or your ID, that'd work too!" She took the chip when he handed it over. "Thanks!" One scan later told her everything she needed to know. "Dispatch, subject's name is Opher… Reesee? Rye-sye?"

"Rye-see," he corrected after a grumble.

"Rye-see! Sorry. Subject's name is Opher Riese, address-"

Suddenly, another voice broke through on her radio. "D1C Ward, Dispatch, I'll help her talk to this guy." To Opher's ears, she seemed just a _little_ frantic. "PO Collins, where are you?"

"Headed toward the Paprika Street refinery entrance, ma'am!" she replied, almost tossing Opher back his ID.

"Copy. Just keep an eye on him until I get there. Ward out."

Once they passed through the gate, Opher walked off down the sidewalk a few meters, dropped his bag, then sat down with his back against the refinery wall. Suspended over the road were pipes of all diameters and colors, bolted to metal trusses which were themselves anchored to evenly-spaced posts in the sidewalks. This pipe network snaked around every corner of every street he could see. People flowed in and out of the gate beside them, and, occasionally, a fire truck would drive by with lights flashing but sirens off.

Collins, full of nervous energy, couldn't help but pace in front of him and babble. "I've never seen anything like it!" she said. "Do you know what happened? Where did that ice come from?"

"Maybe the gods did it," he quipped – which, in an extremely roundabout sense, was kind of true. He hugged his knees and hid his face. A low, despondent "Fuck me…" slipped out shortly after.

"If that's the case, I need to pray more." Collins snapped to attention when she saw Nila approach, even throwing up a salute. "Ma'am!"

The detective wore another skirt suit – this one gray with black pinstripes – and a white blouse, but no necktie. Her graying hair, while down, was slicked tightly back to keep it out of her gold eyes... which she rolled at the patrol officer's antics. "Collins, why are—you don't need to salute, we're not in the military." She glanced down at Opher. "They need help on Coriander directing the fire department hardware. I'll handle this."

"Yes ma'am!" Another salute, then Collins was on her way.

Unwilling to mess up her sharp outfit, Nila remained standing, but leaned against the wall beside him. "Why are you here?"

"Wanted to check out the fire," he replied, head still bowed.

"I see. I also see you left me a voicemail." She stooped when he motioned for her to do so. "What?"

"The passport issue is no longer an issue," he whispered.

Nila acknowledged this with a nod, though her face remained blank. "Can you prove it?" He handed up his new chip, which she scanned right away. "You… you were in the Atlesian military?"

"It's not as past-tense as you might think. Keep it quiet."

She returned his chip with a low sigh. "Great. I traded one secret for another."

He chuckled weakly at this. "I don't think being in the military is illegal, so you're probably fine."

"If you're not lying to me." The towering ice, visible over the refinery wall, caught her eye as spotlights from above made it glitter. "Can you tell me about that?"

Opher rose, dusting off his shirt and pants on the way up. "I saw a problem. I fixed the problem." Their eyes met. "That's exactly what happened."

"Gods help us all," she whispered, looking at the ice one more time. "Well. I sure can't physically detain you, so... I guess you're free to leave." He didn't move. "What? Go home."

"Are those refinery workers going to be exiled? They seemed pretty sure about it. I even got to see the coffin."

Nila rubbed the back of her neck with a frown. "Every heavy industrial facility has one of those for disasters. Gives the workers' families something to bury if-"

"I already fucking heard this from them."

She trembled subtly at his anger, restrained as it was, and looked up at him again. "I don't know. You certainly helped their chances of staying in Vale."

"Yeah." At last, Opher picked up his bag, but before he turned to leave, he and Nila heard a commotion that caused them both to look around with confusion. "Well. If there's another fire, you might get to see me in action."

Nila squinted at this and turned on her earpiece to listen to traffic – it didn't take long for her to get the message to look up. A shimmering, rainbow glow in the sky high above Vale was her reward. "Whoa! What is that?" she blurted out, pointing up.

Opher only gave it a furtive glance. "Good night, Detective." He walked off without another word, using his Scroll to guide him home. This clued him in to a couple of things: first, Indigo hadn't replied to his message; second, he _did_ have a text from a different source – Yang Xiao Long.

_Hey, I need to talk to you about Ruby._

That request went unanswered – he had bigger problems to think about right now. Like why his magic seemed normal when the sorcery of the Maidens Four – who used to be some of the most powerful wielders of the true art on the entire planet – had shriveled up to the point where even he could beat them. His scowl only increased as he walked away from the chaos. "It's upside-down," he mumbled.

Just as upside-down as the victims of a disaster being being ejected for their presence in that disaster, regardless of fault. He glanced back at the refinery. While this revolted him, he comprehended it, at least, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth – especially when compared to his distant memories of the world before Grimm. Opher needed a fuller picture of how things worked now, but he suspected he wouldn't get that by asking the people who lived here. He wouldn't be able to get answers about the tawdry state of the Maidens' gifts from anyone behind these walls, that was for certain.

Behind these walls…

Opher came to an abrupt halt, eyes wide with thought. There _was_ someone he could talk to about both things. She might even deliver him halfway-truthful answers. He'd let things cool off for now. He'd let the city calm down. He'd handle whatever questions arose in the morning.

Tomorrow night, however, he'd be paying Beatrix Malachite a little visit.

* * *

Olivine and Amber had been watching the fire – or, rather, the huge pillar of smoke it made as it wafted high above the south end of the plains in the dying light of the sun – from their perch on Beacon Cliff, well south of campus. They were out there to talk, brainstorming with each other in an effort to see if either one remembered encountering anyone who looked like Pyrrha Nikos in their travels around Anima and Sanus.

That conversation died the moment Opher unleashed his magic against the refinery fire. Neither woman had spoken since; several agonizing minutes of astonished silence finally ended when the aurora above the city began to form. "Did… did you feel…" Amber said.

"Feel it? I fuckin' see it, look," Olivine replied, pointing out toward the dim rainbow in the sky. "No wonder he put up a fight against you and Raven, holy hell." A calm mask hid the immense amount of turmoil boiling in her barrel chest as the Winter Maiden screamed bloody, soundless murder. That power pounded on her soul like a locked door, but she couldn't comprehend its message – she only understood its unbridled shock. It left her trembling subtly. "My girl is screaming like a banshee. She knows something, but I can't understand her. Damn it..."

"There's no way it was him. Maybe it was Raven. Could it be Raven?"

"You know it ain't."

"But… but that means…" Amber stood up and walked to the very edge of the cliff, her green cloak fluttering out behind her in the stiff breeze. "I though I had caused the aurora?" Her hands went to her head. "Gods above who parts the stars, it can't be him! It can't be. It just… it can't!"

Olivine, still a little shaky, stood up and walked over to steady her with one massive hand on her shoulder. "Amber. Breathe. The old man will handle this. He'll know what to do. We're going to find out where he came from, who his friends are – we will solve this. Breathe."

She trembled almost out of control. "His magic, though, it's… there's no way it should be _this_ strong, I don't understand-"

"Amber!" she snapped. Only when their eyes met did she speak again. "Listen. I know you're scared, but you won't have to fight him alone again. I swear. We'll handle him together, all of us – Cinder too, whenever she gets ready. Now come on. I'll bet my ass that the old man is gonna want to see us. Let's be calm when we get there."


	22. Chaff

Ruby was digging in the team's shared closet as soon as dawn even threatened to arrive, desperately searching her wardrobe for something appropriate – or at least more appropriate than she felt her combat ensemble would be – for a trip to Vale's seat of military power. While she owned quite a few copies of her favorite black dress with the red frills, she wanted pants instead. Unfortunately, her pants were all jeans or sweats, and in her mind, those were certainly not fit for such a serious task. "Oh, gods, crap," she whined, tossing clothes onto the floor. "Too casual, too fancy, too fancy-casual, too cute, not cute enough… ugh. Ugh."

Sound from outside told her someone else was awake. A sleepy Weiss shuffled by the open door, so groggy that she failed to notice it being open and her leader's presence inside the closet. Her head poked back around the door frame a few seconds later. "What are you doing in there?" The haphazard pile of clothes on the floor was her answer. "Oh."

Ruby shoved her head into the pile like an ostrich, loosing a muffled "I don't know what to wear for this!" as she shoveled through it; more and more of her body disappeared while she spoke. "Oh my gods."

Already bored with the sight, Weiss departed to brush her teeth. "I am preemptively cutting you off from any coffee this morning."

Yang popped her head in shortly after Weiss left. "What the hell is going on in here?" she asked Ruby's wiggling legs.

"Oh! Yang!" she blurted out while emerging from the pile. "What are you gonna wear? Can I borrow some pants?"

"You're way too little to fit in my clothes, Rubaby." She easily ducked under a thrown pair of flip-flops. "And I'm just gonna wear my usual outfit, why?" This time, a whole dress slammed into her face.

"Are you dumb? You can't walk around General Headquarters with your boobs in everyone's face, dang it!"

"At least I have some." The dress draped over her head was joined by a high velocity pair of sweatpants. She pulled everything off of her face to make eye contact. "Sleep well?"

"Umm…" Ruby fell still and hugged herself lightly. "I needed the piper tablet, but after that, yeah."

"So long as you slept, that's all I care about." She dropped to one knee by her sister and pulled her into a tight embrace. "We're all gonna be there with you. Don't stress."

She regulated her breathing even as Yang spoke. "I know. I'm cool," she whispered back. A bleary-eyed, confused Blake appeared in the closet doorway. "Good morning!"

"Morning… um… what's going on in here?" she asked, cat ears flicking with sleepiness.

"Ruby's just being Ruby." Yang bounced back to her feet and stepped away. "Fine, gods, I'll wear something boring for your sake."

"Thank yoooooouuuuu-"

She went back to fussing over her outfit, so Yang and Blake took their leave and moved away together. "Nervous?" Blake asked.

Yang waved her off with a smile. "Ruby's jittery enough for all of us. I ain't worried. I'm just glad that refinery fire or whatever was goin' on last night didn't attract the Nevermores again. Once was enough for that bullshit."

"I'm with you there. The light in the sky afterward, though… weird. I hope it wasn't some kind of chemical or something." They looked over when someone knocked at the door from the hallway; Blake went over to answer it and found a grinning, barefoot Nora in her pink pajamas. "Oh, hello."

"Hi Blake! Hi Yang! Hi whoever is throwing clothes out of your closet!"

"Hey Nora!" Ruby called back, still out of sight. "You guys all awake?"

"Pretty much." She lowered her voice – at least as much as she could lower it – to speak to Yang. "Did tall, pale and twiggy ever answer your text? I'm asking for you-know-who."

"I'll look." Yang produced the closed device from her cleavage and snapped it open. About what? was the latest message in the thread, sent when she'd been asleep for a few hours already. "Oh, shit, he did." One glance back at the closet made her frown. "Let's keep it quiet for now, she's worried enough."

"Gotcha. I gotta go help Pyrrha tie up her hair or something. Girl needs a trim if you ask me. See ya!" Nora waved and bounced away to return to her own team.

Blake turned to Yang after she shut the door, only to be distracted by yet another pair of pants which flew out of the closet, followed by anguished whining. "One of us might want to convince Ruby to wear her usual outfit?"

"Yeeeeah… I'll handle it." Yang cocked her head at Blake's sudden grin. "What?"

"You two. I don't know, it makes me wish I had a little brother or sister."

"I can ask my dad to adopt you."

A giggling Blake tossed her hair and walked toward the bathroom. "I don't think my parents would like that very much."

After a somewhat well-practiced dance of chaos and closet shuffling, the four girls were ready – although Ruby herself was the last to complete the process. She emerged from the bathroom with her hair as neatly-brushed as possible, but wearing her usual dress, pantyhose, and black boots. Thumbs up from Yang and Blake, plus a shrug from Weiss, did little to assuage her concerns. "I guess I don't have any choice, huh."

"Maybe you should ask dad to ship something fancier out here just in case."

"Hrm." Her silver eyes went to Weiss, who wore something best described as a short coat-dress – a white, long-sleeved garment, double-breasted and cinched at the waist, fastened closed by two vertical rows of four black buttons across the front. It sported large lapels and a wing collar, plus black trim, including black frills along the lower hemline. A matching pair of thigh boots, white with black soles, completed the outfit. "I want one of those in red. And a pair of the boots, they look awesome."

"Why thank you," she replied, soaking up the praise with strokes of her long ponytail. "I'll see what I can do."

"Doesn't hurt that the shoes add a few centimeters. She might even be able to reach the top shelf in the closet now!"

"Oh, shut up, Yang."

Before they could really get going, Pyrrha stuck her head in through the open door. "Hello! Everyone ready? I don't think we've got much time left." She stepped into the room to hold a more polite conversation. In lieu of her usual outfit, she wore a solid, snug red strapless dress that went halfway down to her knees, a pair of shiny black boots that reached those knees, and a lopsided brown leather belt around her waist. Her crown device and gorget were also missing. "Ah! You all look lovely."

Yang and Blake, who'd chosen simple clothes – a yellow t-shirt and jeans, or a black, collared blouse plus gray slacks respectively – looked down at their own outfits and frowned. "I think I know how Ruby feels now," the Faunus admitted quietly.

"Maybe it's less about the clothes and more about who's wearin' 'em," Yang mumbled back. "Whatever, let's get this over with. Are they waiting?"

"Not quite yet, but we may as well go ahead." Ruby, Weiss, and Blake shuffled out into the corridor; before Pyrrha could leave, however, the blonde grabbed her wrist gently. "Hmm?"

"I'm gonna try to talk to him while we're on the airship. Don't tell Ruby. I'll let her know when I've got something to say."

She nodded once. "I understand."

Some minutes later saw all eight gathered near the airship pads, which were bathed in golden light as the sun continued to rise over the sea in the west. Pyrrha was the only member of her team dressed notably differently than usual; her face said she regretted bringing a jacket to resist the brisk morning air.

"Look, man, these are pretty much the fanciest clothes I've got," Jaune, sans armor plates, pointed out after some gentle snickering from Weiss. "I really should have packed a suit." He waved a hand at Yang. "She's wearing pretty much the same thing I am, why aren't you laughing at her?"

"'Cause I know where she sleeps, that's why."

"So do I!"

"Oh my goooooooooooods you guys worry too much, it's just a little chit-chat! You need to chill out."

Ren looked over at Nora and dispensed some quiet wisdom. "You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression."

This quelled her usual energetic fidgeting, at least briefly. "True, but still. It's not a big deal."

While the campus was generally quiet behind them – most of the other students had yet to wake up – they weren't exactly alone; Velvet Scarlatina's rounds had brought her toward this end of the main walkway just in time to see them all standing there. While she was glad to see Blake, of course, there were too many strangers around for her to walk over and say hello. Once Blake saw her and started waving, however, she gathered up all her courage and pushed her cart toward them. "G'day!" she said, attempting to be chipper even though her voice broke slightly with nervousness. Weiss received a deeply wary look when she arrived. "What are you doing out here so early?"

Blake issued her a brief hug. "We're about to head into Vale. I'm sorry I haven't been out to see you lately. Don't tell me you're still making rounds by yourself?"

"Nah, it's not like that. Miss Goodwitch turned some volunteers from Haven into the day shift. They're pretty ace! I just do whatever they leave overnight. Isn't much." This was the first time she'd seen Jaune and Pyrrha up close; she had to tilt her head back slightly to make proper eye contact. "Whoa. Uh, hello up there."

Pyrrha chuckled. "It's nice to finally meet you. Any friend of Blake's is a friend of mine."

Yang backed up this sentiment with a huge grin and a wink. "Damn right. Look at you! I can already tell you're a sweetheart."

"Ahhhh, heck." A blushing Velvet lost much of her anxiousness and smiled. "I already know everybody's names. Blake told me. So, you know… hi?" She took a moment to eyeball those wearing different clothing than usual. "Pyrrha, huh? Spiffy dress. You too, Weiss. Real bonza, the both of 'em."

"I—um, thank you?" Weiss replied, head tilted with confusion.

"Oh, sorry. It's just the way I learned to speak when I was growing up. S'how my parents always talked."

She took a breath and returned to her usual proper state. "I… see. I appreciate the compliment all the same."

"No worries!" Velvet noted the time on her Scroll and emitted a surprised little squeak. "Whew, I better go. These cans won't empty themselves."

"I'll look for you tonight," Blake assured her. "I want you to meet Ilia, anyway. I think you'll like her."

"Lookin' forward to it! See you!" One wave later, Velvet was on her way toward the main part of campus. As she turned, her long chestnut hair swung out just enough to reveal a small adhesive bandage across the back of her neck, near the base of her skull. Weiss and Blake held their breaths until they saw it, covering the mark, at which point they exhaled almost simultaneously.

A moment or two after Velvet left, Pyrrha looked down at a still somewhat uneasy Blake. "Ah… her face. It looked a little odd."

"Yeah," Nora agreed. "What's the deal?"

"It's… don't ask," she replied, feline ears flat against her head with sorrow. "I'm really proud of her, though, I didn't think she'd come over with so many people around." Suddenly, every single one of their Scrolls went off, including hers, emitting all kinds of adorable or generic _you got a message_ noises. The cause: a collective notice from Glynda about a military shuttle arriving in ten minutes, plus an inquiry bolted thereupon wondering if everyone was ready to go. "Oh. Guess we don't have long to wait." Before she answered, something else caught her eye. "I got a text from mom!"

"Hm. I have a message from father," a distinctly less-enthused Weiss noted. "They must have fixed the network problem or whatever it was. About time."

"Aww, I'm gonna miss being your personal messenger, Blakey!"

Ruby, slightly off to the side and farther away from the conversation than they were from the city of Vale, stared toward the sunrise at a distant nightmare wheeling loose circles in the clear sky. It wasn't a Nevermore, but it was unquestionably a Grimm – draconian in shape, enormous, with a horned white mask that covered its entire head. Most of its wing area consisted of crimson membranes which were slightly transparent. It also had a long, slender, tapered black tail. Since nobody else reacted to its presence, she maintained her stone-faced demeanor.

 _It's not real._ Beads of sweat clung to her forehead despite the brisk air.

"Whatcha lookin' at, Rubes?"

Her gaze snapped over to Yang. "Oh, uh, just watching for the airship!" she lied happily. "Sorry. I spaced out for a second." When she looked back toward Vale, the specter was gone. "Huh." The suspicious expression she received next caused her to huff. "What? Stop staring at me."

A few meters away stood a hoodie-clad Emerald, leaned inconspicuously against an out-of-the-way lamppost as she smoked what was left of her cigarette. Between puffs, she watched her prey carefully for reactions to the illusion. The way Ruby stood, stiff as a board, was enough for her to call it a success; she finished off the cigarette, crushed it out on the lamppost, and dropped the butt into a trash can before walking back toward the dorms, passing a completely oblivious Velvet along the way.

* * *

Unlike the squared-off, gray stone which dominated much of Vale's architecture outside its few skyscrapers – and the sail-like frames of Atlesian-designed structures – buildings in its Government District struck a much more imposing tone. Hewn from white marble, with huge columns suspending their gabled roofs, their walls were filled with expansive arched windows to let in natural light. They were also taller on average than buildings elsewhere in the city – especially the massive palace which they could see even from street-level, encircled by the solemn halls of Vale's power. Its golden dome and four obsidian spires towered above everything, threatening to punch holes in the airship-rich blue sky.

Nora summed it up best: "Geez, this place sure is serious."

A serious place whose footpaths were full of equally-serious people, in suits, or skirt suits, or military uniforms – enough pedestrians to make up for the notable lack of vehicle traffic. Pyrrha led the way down these sidewalks, using her Scroll for guidance. "Yes. I thought Argus' district was bad," she replied quietly. One glance went back over her shoulder at a distracted Ruby and a frustrated Yang, who brought up the rear of their procession. While she could guess why the latter seemed unhappy – Yang glaring at her Scroll was the clue – the state of the former baffled her a little. "Ruby? Are you okay?"

She donned a wooden smile. "Yeah. I'm good. Sorry. I just feel reeeeeeeally outta place." Her stomach growled. "And I hope they're gonna feed us something when we get there…" Despite her feigned confidence, she kept reaching behind her back to pat a Crescent Rose that wasn't there.

"We do have a six hour pass," Weiss noted, examining her white fingernail polish. "If nothing else, I'll buy us lunch."

"Yeah, don't tell Nora that. She'll eat you right out of the Schnee fortune," Jaune warned her with a grin. Nora snickered beside him, but Ruby's continued unease stifled his amusement. "Seriously, you okay over there?"

"I'm fiiiiiiiiiiiiine, gods." A street sign caught her eye. "Oh! Oh! Weymount Avenue! We're almost there! I think."

The building itself was impossible to miss; it swallowed up multiple city blocks on its own in both directions and stood five stories tall. Between the sidewalk and the front entrance sat a large circular water fountain that shot high up into the air. Behind it were three flagpoles in a line parallel with the front of the building. These bore the colors of the Kingdom's armed services. Each flag's centered device was the Great Seal of Vale – two crossed silver axes encircled by a curved wreath of green leaves – on a monotone field: sky blue for the Air Force, black for the Navy, and dark green for the Army, from left to right. The entrance itself, located atop a titanic slope of white marble stairs, was propped up by columns innumerable – between some of these pillars stood male and female guards in slate blue uniforms with orange berets on their heads, hands clasped behind their backs, and dark sunglasses on their faces. The eight kids lingered at the base of the stairs in various levels of awe.

"Damn," Yang whispered, a little intimidated. "I didn't realize the place was this big."

"Do we just go in?" Blake asked, feline ears slightly flattened. "Or…"

"Pyrrha and I are supposed to let them know we're here." Ruby produced her own Scroll and, a few taps later, had her ID information on screen, ready to present. "Ready to go?"

"Yes." They walked up the steps, side by side, leaving their teams behind to approach the nearest guard. His sunglasses were impenetrable – they had to be to fight the off the glare produced by the sun's harsh light on the white steps – but the rest of his dark, clean-shaven face was daunting enough to make her nervous regardless. "Ah, excuse me?"

"ID and reason for visit, please," he stated flatly. They gave him their Scrolls; once he confirmed their faces, he handed them back.

Pyrrha took up explaining their presence. "We're the students from Beacon Academy. I'm not exactly sure who our appointment is with." She motioned at the rest of their party. "They're with us. Ruby and I are the team leaders."

"One moment." He spoke into a microphone on his shoulder. "I have students from Beacon seeking permission to enter. Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos." The response flowed into his earpiece. "Understood, ma'am." He looked back to Pyrrha. "All right, you've been granted entry. Have your teams display their IDs to me on the way in. Wait in the main lobby through those doors."

"Of course. Thank you." Pyrrha dipped her head – Ruby did too – and waved their friends up the steps. "Show him your IDs on the way!" she called.

The interior of the building was just as grandiose as the outside – it lacked any sort of small antechamber and opened right up into a gigantic lobby, even bigger than the one at the base of Beacon Tower, with a polished granite floor and recessed circular lights in the white ceiling. Centered in this space was a pair of staircases that led up to the second floor; between these was a giant reception desk made of light stone, staffed with three people in different uniforms. While many little seating areas were arranged around them – little round tables with four chairs each – none of them felt comfortable enough to sit and wait. Foot traffic in here was constant and thick, with all sorts of folks heading up or down the staircases, or walking around them toward other rooms whose doors were in the side walls of the area. "Your military certainly knows how to make an impression, doesn't it?" Weiss remarked to Ruby.

"Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez," she breathed back. "I've only seen pictures. This is nuts."

"Ah, there you are!" They turned to see a much friendlier face approach, clad in a uniform much like the guards outside, except his beret was green. Closely-cropped red hair peeked out from underneath it. The flash on the beret's front was a red shield, supporting two thin, horizontal silver bars – his rank insignia. Based on his pale face, he wasn't much older than Yang. "Welcome to the big box. You must be here to see General Zhen. Please follow me."

"G-General?" Ruby stammered as they fell in behind him. "We're talking to a—seriously?" The building's second floor wasn't quite as open as the one below; what of it they could see was offices and corridors arranged in a grid structure, whose walls were all painted Valesian Air Force blue. The flooring was white carpet. While it did feature a reception desk directly ahead, it was much smaller than the one in the huge lobby. She fired a glance down one of those hallways as they followed their guide, which revealed just how massive the building was – it seemed to stretch on for ages.

"Oh, yeah. You're gonna be talking to General Zhen the younger – don't call her 'the younger', by the way – and despite the mean-looking scar on her face, she's really not so bad. You're civilians, anyway, she won't yell at you. Be respectful and you'll get respect. Easy."

"The younger?" Pyrrha asked. "There's more than one?"

He nodded. "Correct. You're gonna see Brigade General Zhen. Her older sister is the commander of 4th Frontier Corps, so she holds a higher rank. We just refer to all of the general officers as 'General' because it's easier." He looked back at them with bright blue eyes and a big smile. "Oh, I'm Lance Corporal Kilmartin, by the way. I'm part of AGHQ's enlisted staff. If you need anything, I'm the guy to ask."

"How about some breakfast?" Nora only squinted when Pyrrha shot a look her way. "Hey, I'm hungry."

Jaune would have crossed his arms were he not walking. "You're always hungry."

"Ha! Not sure I can help you there, I'm afraid." He led them up another staircase, much like the first, to the building's third floor. The main difference here was color: the walls were Army dark green, while the carpet had been exchanged for silver tile. "Almost there." They entered the left-most corridor in the grid and walked along it for a good while before he stopped at one of the black doors in the wall. "Here we go! Just have a seat in here and General Zhen will be with you shortly." He grinned at Nora. "You might want to ask her about getting something to eat."

"Are you serious?" Ruby asked as they all walked into what turned out to be a large conference room. There was a long, black table at its center with twelve plush office chairs around it. At one end of the tabletop was placed a silver device of some kind, a boxy thing which none of them could identify. Two windows were placed in the wall opposite the door, though their electrochromatic panels were set so dark that they were almost opaque. "She's a friggin' General, man, she doesn't have time for that stuff!"

"That's exactly the idea! What she wants, she gets in a hurry. Use that to your advantage!" He waved once they all entered the room and disappeared out of sight beyond the doorway.

A curious Blake walked over to look out the windows, where a decent view of the palace and its tall, black stone façade awaited. "Wow," she gasped. "That's where your Queen lives? You could fit half of Kuo Kuana in that thing."

"It's not just Her Majesty's residence," Ruby explained while spinning around in one of the swivel chairs to ease her nerves. "A lot of the civil ministries are based there too." Too many rotations left her dizzy, so she grabbed the table to stop. "Whoa. Whoooooooa."

"All this fuss is probably my fault," Weiss said as she chose a seat and plopped daintily into it. Confused looks from her teammates caused a smile. "You don't send just anyone to talk to a Schnee, you know. Of course it's a General."

"Oh my gods," Yang moaned, rubbing her eyes. "Couldn't you say the same for Pyrrha? Her family owns half of fuckin' Argus."

The redhead frantically waved off that assertion with both hands. "We do not!"

An arrival cut their chat short. In stepped a woman in slate blue, but not the field uniform of the guards outside – hers featured a longer double-breasted overcoat with slacks over black wingtip shoes, not baggy pants crammed into boots. Her gold-colored beret lacked a flash; instead, a silver rank device was placed where it would have been, two crossed axes in gleaming silver which were the same as the ones on the Great Seal of Vale. As for the person herself, there were some lines on her warm olive face – she was perhaps forty, maybe forty-five – and a visible scar which lashed across her left cheek from jawline to ear. She stood taller than Yang, but not quite as tall as Pyrrha or Jaune. The corners of her hazel eyes were tilted upward somewhat and were topped by thin, arched black eyebrows. Her jet black hair was just long enough to sport locks in the back. Despite the copious uniform, tautness in spots along the coat sleeves betrayed how athletic she was.

Ruby stood up immediately despite lingering unsteadiness from her swivel chair adventure. "Good morning, ma'am!" A few frantic waves went toward those still seated. "Get up! Get up! This is her!" She looked back at the stranger. "It… is you, right? The person we're supposed to see?"

Her first response was a pleasant chuckle, somewhat higher-pitched than expected given her stout build. "You caught me. It's all right, really, sit down! I'm Brigade General Zhen Xuefeng, from the Army Academy Liaison Office. You can call me Xuefeng, if you like."

"B-but you're a-!"

More chuckling at Ruby as Xuefeng walked over to sit at the end of the table where the silver box was. "Miss Rose, I may be an officer, but you're not soldiers. It's okay." One motion urged them back in their chairs. Ruby and her team ended up on her right, with Pyrrha's bunch on the other side. Nora's raised hand caught her eye. "Yes?"

"The other guy said to ask you for breakfast."

It was Pyrrha's turn to rub her eyes. "Nora…"

Even more snickering as she doffed her beret and stored it under a shoulder strap designed just for that purpose, revealing all of her slicked-back hair. "I'm already way ahead of you. I haven't eaten yet either. I've asked the mess to bring something up for us." She clasped her hands on the table and lost much of her airy pleasantness. "I should apologize for dragging you all out here so early, but events have forced my hand."

"Events? Like, nothing bad, right?" Yang asked.

"To be completely honest, we're not sure yet." One tap of a button on the silver box closed the door to give them all some privacy. "I'll address this Dust thing later. Right now, I'd like to understand exactly how those Geists were beaten in the Emerald Forest."

"Erm, ma'am, that wasn't really us, it was-"

Her raised hand silenced Ruby. "I mean you, collectively. We already know Riese was there. So he did it himself?" Nodding was her answer. "Tell me what happened."

"He threw spears of ice. Large ones," Pyrrha said. She spread her arms out as wide as she could to demonstrate their size. "Bigger than this. I assume he used the remote priming mechanism to make them and launch them, but…" Her face became thoughtful. "We never saw his Dust supply. They just appeared and flew out of his hand."

"That wasn't the only thing he did, either," Weiss noted. "We were completely surrounded by Grimm. Then he swoops in and wipes them all out. No effort. He used ice for that, too."

"Same thing for our night trial," Yang added. "Jumps in the air and punches the ground. Boom. Ice shoots up everywhere."

This was news to Xuefeng. "He interfered in more than one?" she asked, one brow raised. "Did you inform the Beacon staff each time?" Immense collective squirming from most of them – Nora and Ren excluded, as usual – was her reward. "I'll take that as a no."

"We did!" Ruby said. "I mean, we did eventually. For the first time. The second time wasn't really his fault, his airship crashed into the forest and he fought his way out with gun fri—I mean Miss Stahl. Or I guess he fought his way out. We only saw him for a little bit."

What was left of her polite demeanor drained away upon hearing Indigo's last name. "Stahl… Indigo Stahl?" she asked, squinting slightly.

Pyrrha confirmed this with a nod. "Yes, ma'am. He worked for her until very recently."

Xuefeng produced her Scroll from a hip pocket and stuck it, still collapsed, into a slot in the silver box. A little screen lit up so she could access the UI. A few awkward, quiet moments of swiping and tapping passed before she addressed them again. "She mentioned a little airship incident while assisting with the defense of campus, not that it crashed." Three knocks rang out from the door. "Enter," she bellowed, glaring at the screen.

The food had arrived, a sampling of all sorts of items on two carts, which their uniformed deliverers left against one wall before departing with salutes. Xuefeng emptied the carts and arranged the items on the table with a few sweeps of her hand, not even bothering to watch what she was doing. It wasn't necessary. "Whoa," Jaune said as the process unfolded, "is this your Semblance?"

"Yes. I hear I have the same type as Glynda Goodwitch." Xuefeng removed her Scroll from the box, put it away, then remained quiet, allowing them to pick and choose what they wanted while using her power to grab a cup of coffee with a lid. She only spoke again a few moments later. "What I'm about to show you does not, under any circumstances, leave this room. Understood?" One tap of another button on the box dimmed the lights and brought down a projection screen on the wall on Pyrrha's side of the table. A few seconds later, an aerial view of some industrial complex appeared – their attention instantly went to the gigantic spikes of ice jutting out from part of it. Seconds later, an overlay appeared, giving them an exact scale of what they were looking at. "Last night there was an accident at the Capulet Refinery. You might have seen the smoke from Beacon. Some valve or something failed, somewhere, I don't know. What's on screen now is how the resulting fire was extinguished."

"They're as big as buildings!" Blake exclaimed. "What happened?"

"It was him, wasn't it."

All eyes went to Pyrrha. Xuefeng shrugged. "He's our best guess. Riese's ID was scanned twice at the scene by responding police. We have a problem, though. When that ice melted, there was no Ash, which would suggest it's not Dust."

"Oooo! His Semblance! It must be an elemental one like mine!" Nora said, clapping her hands. "Except, like, wait… that would cost a ton of Aura." Recalling something her leader said a while ago caused her eyes to light up. "Oh no, hold on, Pyrrha said he had a lot! Maybe he could get away with it."

"Did she, now."

Put on the spot, an awkwardly-smiling Pyrrha turned her attention away from picking at her food to regard Xuefeng's piercing stare. "I felt it the first time I ran into him. My Semblance involves-"

"I know what it involves, Miss Nikos, get on with it."

"Y-yes. Opher's Aura is – well, to put it simply, it's very, very, very big. It seems like he has the Aura of a bunch of people all in one."

Xuefeng rose from her chair to pace slowly around the table. "What else do you know about Opher Riese?" No answers came. "I wouldn't be too quiet. If you're complacent in something, I'm obligated to let Professor Ozpin know. How I get that information will have a serious bearing on whatever consequences come next."

Yang finally spoke up, keen to throw whatever bones were necessary to keep her sister and friends out of trouble. "Not much. No idea where he's from, no idea what he did before he came here, nothing. Shit, we only have a _guess_ about why he saved us that one time."

"I'd like to hear it."

"Apparently, I resemble someone he lost," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah. Ah, hell, what was her name…" Yang added, snapping her fingers as she hunted down the memory.

"Carmine." Ruby drained her cup of its coffee payload and waited for the caffeine to soak in. "They were a couple, I think? Miss Stahl said they had a baby together but I guess she… um… she passed. Somehow. We don't know anything about that either."

Xuefeng retrieved her Scroll again, using it to control the screen on the wall. Opher's passport information appeared. "This is what _we_ know. I'm showing you so we can all be on the same page for what I'm about to say next."

"He was a soldier?" Weiss said. "I had no idea."

Ruby tilted her head. "Umm… Miss Stahl said he worked for the Schnee Dust Company. He did both?"

Xuefeng dismissed the screen and returned to her seat to spring the trap. "He taught you about the alternate priming mechanism, yes?" They nodded. "You are strictly forbidden from demonstrating it to anyone else. Whether or not you continue to use it is up to you after you hear what I have to say."

While they were all surprised to some extent – even the usually stoic Ren wore a frown – Ruby's horror was by far the most intense, so strong it propelled her to her feet. "W-wait a second, ma'am! It could help—it's already helped us!"

"Why?" Pyrrha added, wide-eyed with disbelief. "It costs no Aura, it works at pretty much every distance we've tried it, it… it would save a lot of lives! I can't even think of all the ways regular people could use it!"

"Yeah, whoa, hold on," Jaune said, backing her up, "Where is this order coming from? You? I thought we answered to the teachers at Beacon?"

No words were needed for Xuefeng to shut them all up – one bone-rattling glare did the job just fine. "Let me finish. I know you want to use it to help others. Of course you do… but you _wouldn't_ be helping them. This technique does not come without drastic cost. Why do you think we haven't implemented it in our training doctrine? In yours?"

"Wait… really?" Ruby sat back down. "What cost? What does it do?"

"The same thing Grimm exposure does. It corrupts the Aura until that illness feeds back into the body and mind."

Everyone fell still – even Nora, who stopped eating to gaze across the table at a pallid, sweating Ruby. "Oh," she breathed. "Oh no."

She got up again and shuffled unsteadily away toward one of the windows; her red hood went up just so nobody else would see the abject panic in her silver eyes. A moment later, Yang was by her side.

"It… it hasn't been long enough to do any serious damage, right?" Weiss asked, staring at Ruby's back. "We've only known—three weeks or so, I think, not even a month. So there's no problem. Right?" She looked at the stoic Xuefeng. "Right?" The longer the silence dragged on, the more frantic she became. "We _passed_ our checks!" she finally snapped while rising from her chair.

"I see he didn't tell you about this part of it, did he?" she finally replied, her voice smooth as glass.

"Fucking bastard…" Yang hugged Ruby's shoulders as best she could. "What do we do?"

"Your best option would be to cease using it immediately. Does anyone else on campus know?"

"I showed two other people," Ruby wheezed, barely able to restrain her terror. Uneven breaths entered her lungs. "P-Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil. I don't know if they've shown anyone else. I'll ask them."

"Good. Be sure you tell them what I told you."

"Why would he… why wouldn't he warn us about this?" Pyrrha mumbled, eyes hidden with one hand. "It felt so _right_. I don't understand."

Xuefeng stood up again, giving her a pat on the shoulder on the way by. "There's no way Atlas would let someone like him leave their army – unless they _wanted_ to get rid of him." Ruby and Yang got a brief glance. "I suspect his unwillingness to be forthcoming extends to worse transgressions than fudging his job history." Her face softened, as did her tone. "I am sorry to drop all of this on your heads. I wanted a different perspective on Riese before we meet him later on, from people with some distance from him. I also wanted you to hear the truth as soon as possible. I hope you're not angry at your teachers. I doubt they even understood the risks."

"No, man, not at all," Yang assured her. A torrent of anger swept in right after. "Professor Goodwitch warned us to be careful. She was right. Fuck. I should have known his ass was slimy when he didn't even report being fucking kidnapped. Fuck him. I hope someone throws him out."

"We'll see what happens." One more glance at Ruby before she headed toward the door. "Finish up eating, if you'd like, but don't take too long. I'll have a shuttle on the roof ready to carry you back in a few minutes," she said before leaving. Outside in the hallway, a few doors down, stood Kilmartin at attention – she issued an order to him on her way past. "Make sure they're on their way to Beacon within half an hour. Tell the transport company to talk to me if they have a problem with it."

"Ma'am," he acknowledged with a salute.

Xuefeng entered the grid maze and strode back to her office, narrow-eyed and moody, parting a river of subordinates as she went. It wasn't anything special, containing enough room for a decent desk and chair, with some wall shelving for books and a few personal knickknacks. She even had a window, at least, although the view outside wasn't quite as grand as the side of the building which faced the palace. The moment she shut the door, however, she realized there was a problem. "Why is this open?" she mumbled while walking to the window. It wasn't completely shut; a little breeze moved the dark red curtains. Before she could close it, however, a strange sound behind her caused her to look over her shoulder.

Raven Branwen stood at her door, sword sheath on her hip and a new white-and-red mask hiding her face. "I let myself in," she replied slyly. "Hope you don't mind." The anger in Xuefeng's eyes caused a smirk under her mask. "Don't look so mad, General, you should be glad I decided to help you with this," she said while locking it and walking away.

Those hazel eyes became angry slits. "I don't know why you chose to _help_ me at all. I did not ask for-"

"Because you have no idea what you're dealing with." Raven sauntered around the room, ending up at the shelves, where pictures of other members of the Zhen family caught her eye. "You've seen the footage from the refinery. Opher Riese is not the kind of man you try to wrangle by force. Trust me… I have personal experience." She picked up a photo of Xuefeng, another woman, and a younger man between them – siblings, clearly, they looked so much alike – to examine more closely.

"I don't want him wrangled, I want him exiled. Stahl and Voss, too, if I can help it. They're up to something. Stahl even lied about her involvement in the Nevermore attack up at Beacon! That violates her-"

"None of them are going anywhere," Raven warned her as she set the picture aside. "For the same reason I came to you. Usefulness. So long as _you_ remain useful, your secrets are safe."

Xuefeng bared teeth, unleashing her Semblance to grab Raven by the throat. That force was instantly shoved aside by the power of the true art and one dismissive flick of her armored right hand – the feedback struck like lightning all across her Aura and left her breathless. "Wh—how did you-"

"Consider that a little demonstration about why you shouldn't challenge me _or_ him. I don't think Vale can afford the price of trying to use force on either of us." She wandered away from the shelves. "Did you tell them what I told you to?"

"Yes."

"Good. Did they buy it?"

"I'd say so. One of them looked ready to cry." So did Xuefeng; she shuffled uneasily over to sit behind her desk. "Is it actually true?"

"You have enough to worry about. How about the kids? What did they have to say?"

Xuefeng rubbed her temples to fight off a headache. "At least two more people know about the method. Beacon students, I think, Polendina and Soleil are their last names. I would almost guarantee Stahl and Voss know it too if they're his friends."

"I'll handle them. The students should handle themselves."

"The blonde one… Xiao Long, or whatever, also mentioned a name for the girl that looks like Nikos: Carmine." She shot another glare up at Raven, who never returned the eye contact. "If you wanted my help, you could have just _asked_. This would have come to my attention eventually anyway. You don't have to hold things over our heads."

"I'm in a hurry, and, honestly, it's nothing personal; your brother's sins will help keep your mouths shut. Besides, I'm lazy, and dirty hands make my work a whole lot easier." One obnoxious arm stretch later and Raven was on her way back to the window. "Listen, it's for the greater good. But – and I must stress this – nothing about whatever you see or hear in our time together can become public. That's why I have the… let's call it insurance. All you have to do is the same thing you've done for your whole career: follow orders."

"I don't answer to you!"

A thick, billowing collection of cold fog enveloped her from the floor up as she stood at the window. "You do now." By the time Xuefeng got up and walked into that cloud, Raven was already gone.

* * *

"Psssssst. 'Tia."

Miltia startled awake after a few seconds of gentle shaking from her twin sister. "What?" she gasped, expecting some kind of danger, only to realize that she was in the same place she'd fallen asleep in – the almost pitch-black bedroom of a unit in the dilapidated apartment block where Beatrix and her daughters lived, tucked away deep within Mountain Glenn's crumbling expanse. "What... unnnhhh, Mel, don't wake me up unless something weird is going on. You know I've got morning patrol with Marina." Once her eyes achieved focus and adjusted to the dark, she saw the faint, Scroll-illuminated form of her mother in the doorway. "Mom? Ohhhhhhhh boy. What happened? I'll go get my claws."

"Now, now, baby girl, you ain't about to fight anybody. Just get dressed. We've got ourselves a delicate situation that needs your…" She waved one hand around for a moment, "...way with words."

Both Melanie and Beatrix got a confused look in reply before Miltia slid off of her ratty mattress. "Um, all right, I guess?"

Melanie had to help her get to her feet; her mother used her Scroll's light until Miltia found her own. Neither could watch her limp – the result of lingering damage from her encounter with Opher – for long without frowning and glancing away. "Let me know when you're ready, sweetie," Beatrix said. "No need to get all dolled-up."

"Fine."

Minutes later saw both Malachite twins on the street outside, embraced in all directions by an unnerving combination of broken city, plus the silence and darkness of midnight on the southern Carnforth Plain. The only light came from people up in the skyscrapers on lookout duty, using their Scrolls to see. Breath left their lips in clouds as they walked; Melanie went slow to stay by her ailing sister. "You need to stop going on patrols."

"Mel, I'm okay. Just kind of sore."

"For almost a week? Your legs shake every time you walk around." Her green eyes dimmed with hatred. "You'd be fine by now if that flying bastard hadn't killed our damn medic. Ugh. We should ask Miss Grace to kidnap another one for us."

Miltia couldn't help but giggle. "I guess that's one way to say you're worried about me."

"Peh." She adjusted the fur stole around her neck. "This is why mom wants you to talk to her. I just ain't got the disposition for it."

"Right…"

The problem came into view around the corner of a half-finished storefront of some kind – in the distance sat one of the city's traffic roundabouts, complete with a central plinth that lacked a statue, which the Malachite gang used as their graveyard. All the markers were hand made, consisting of a vertical pole with an X – made of wood, or metal, or whatever was at hand – atop it to represent the crossed-arms pose of prayer. Ten of these markers looked much newer than the rest. Someone was knelt down by one of those new graves. "There she is," Melanie said quietly. "She's been out here three nights in a row now. Only moves when the sun comes up."

"Wow." Miltia took a second to straighten up her red dress. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Just be you. I'll wait back here."

"Okay, I guess." Miltia approached the figure slowly – and not just due to the physical discomfort of walking. When the light of her Scroll brought clarity at last, she found a woman in a black hooded jacket and a long, worn-out purple dress, knelt on the cracked pavement. "Alkina? Hi. It's me."

"Miss Miltiades." Only when Miltia struggled to sit down did Alkina move, lifting the hood of her black jacket, then reaching out to assist the girl in red. "You're still hurting," she said, trying to blow the platinum blonde hair out of her gray eyes while her hands focused on keeping Miltia steady.

"So are you." Once seated, she tried to hug her knees, failed because of the pain, then chose to leave her legs stretched out in front of her. "I don't think he'd wanna see you like this."

"I can't help it. He was…" She bowed her head to stop from bawling and only just succeeded. "Now my whole family's gone."

"If that was true, I wouldn't be sitting with you right now." Miltia offered a smile when she looked over. "When my dad died, it felt like… I dunno, like a hole I couldn't climb out of. I had to, though. For mom, and for Mel. We need you now more than ever, Al."

Alkina bowed her head even further. "How am I supposed to counsel anyone else when I can't get over anything?"

"Don't look at it like that. Now you know exactly how they feel. And, like, hey, you can lean on them too, right?"

A sudden stiff breeze made her shiver. "I don't know. It hurts too much to think about, but I can't put my mind on anything else." Nearby sounds told her they weren't alone anymore; she looked up and to the left and saw a shadow walking toward them from another roundabout entrance. "How many people did you bring?"

"Um, none. Mel?" Miltia called, shining her light on the new arrival. "Is that you?"

Not even close. Opher, clad in his usual hat, with a light blue shirt over desert camouflage cargo pants, approached them slowly. Before he could even open his mouth to speak, however, an enraged Alkina snatched a nearby shovel off the ground and charged him, shrieking with anger. She lashed the steel blade against the side of his face, knocking his hat off, then wound up for another swing against the other cheek. Each hit snapped his head to the side and forced him one step back.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed, driving the blade down against the top of his skull. "You killed him! You killed him!"

Her attacks kept coming, every impact of the shovel against his head producing a metallic clang that echoed through the cold night air. Those sounds were barely audible over her enraged screams. Melanie showed up just as a panicking Miltia got to her feet. "Oh my gods," she gasped. "Oh my gods, we gotta run. 'Tia, we gotta go-"

Miltia wouldn't. She hobbled over and grabbed the angry woman from behind. "Stop! Al! No! Stop!" she begged, trying to pull her away; her slender frame made this impossible, especially when faced with the combination of Alkina's screeching wrath and her own nagging injuries.

More strikes. Alkina swung at him even as both Malachite twins struggled to restrain her, snapping his head around with the shovel blade a few more times. By the time they put distance between her and him, the metal was warped and bent all to hell. Opher's face, however, was as pristine as when she started beating him. Without a word, he picked up his hat, dusted it off, and pulled it back on.

"Gods…" she breathed, releasing the shovel and stumbling backward a little before she dropped to her knees again. "Just kill me. Let me go home. Let me see my brother again."

The twins put themselves between him and her to prevent that wish from being granted. He could hear distant shouting – people coming to investigate, no doubt – but Opher wasn't in any rush. His eyes went to the markers. "Sorry for the interruption. I saw your Scroll lights. How many of those are my fault?" he asked quietly.

"Why do you care?" Melanie hissed at him. "You didn't even give us anything to bury. What the hell do you want? Did you come to finish us off?" She held her ground – despite trembling – as he walked toward, then past them to sit down not far from where Alkina had been moments before. "What… what are you doing?"

Staring at the graves, that's what. "Hey, shovel girl. Which one is his?" He followed her Scroll light toward a marker covered with silver paint. "What was his name?"

A whole bunch of uncertain looks bounced between the twins, but Alkina herself couldn't dig up the fear to match. "Clancy."

Opher heard a shouted " _Oh, gods, not again_!" from some guy on the periphery of the roundabout, off to his right. Lights, Scroll-borne and otherwise, were now shining on him, but he remained seated. His attention was on Alkina's back. "Did he get caught in the fire?"

She wilted again. "Yes. One second he was there… the next… just, nothing."

"Yeah." He waved a hand, directing a little mixture of wind and earth Dust to straighten up every marker in the graveyard. "I'm sorry."

"You're…" Miltia broke just far enough away from her sister to stare Opher down. " _Sorry_?"

His answer went directly toward the bereaved woman on her knees. "I got mad at the girl in the green cloak. _Really mad_. Which, I understand, isn't an excuse."

"I hate you." Alkina's words, however, lacked much of a sting.

"You should. Do you have any pictures of him?"

She hesitated for a long time before she turned on her knees to face him. Her fingers moved lethargically across her Scroll screen until, at last, she turned it to show him one – in it, she stood next to a tall, lanky, grinning boy with flame-red hair and green eyes.

Opher took it from her to examine the picture more closely – he honestly couldn't remember killing this man, which wasn't surprising. That fact induced a scowl anyway. A little dive into the folder betrayed more images of him and her both. "What's your name?"

Sure now that she wasn't about to wipe her off the face of Remnant, Alkina stood with the increasingly bewildered Malachite sisters. "It's… it's Alkina. Why are you-"

"Hold on." Opher placed one hand on the cracked street and continued to examine the photos. Moments passed – time that those who came to investigate used to form a loose circle around them, weapons ready, but not aimed. Without warning, he suddenly pulled a stone figurine out of the ground; a large, precise replica of the first image she'd shown him of the two of them standing together. He rose to his feet, then offered it, along with the Scroll, to a stunned Alkina. "It's not him, but at least you'll have something to hold on to."

She had no idea what to say and simply took the items before walking away toward the loose perimeter of armed sentinels; this left the Malachite twins alone with him, unarmed, yet unwilling to try and flee. "Why are you here?" Melanie finally asked.

"I want to talk to your mother."

He wouldn't have long to wait; a panting Beatrix arrived moments later, escorted by more of her armed subordinates. Her purple outfit was a hastily-assembled mess. Seeing the identity of their caller caused her to come to a dead halt, eyes wide with terror. "You… if something happened to your friends, that wasn't us! I swear on my baby girls! We had nothing to-"

His raised left hand shut her up. "Indigo and Schwarze are fine. They're not exactly pleased with me at the moment, I guess, but they're fine." The distant howling of Grimm drew their attention briefly. "I'll handle that if they get in here."

"Mom, he wants to talk to you," Miltia whispered.

Beatrix, flanked by her daughters, stared at him for silent ages. He stood there all the while, hands in his pockets, and stared back. "Everyone back to your posts," she finally commanded. "And take a breath. I'm sure one of us will call if we need you." It took them a _long_ while to obey, but obey they did, leaving the Malachites alone with Opher – and, some distance away now, a silent Alkina – to continue their staring match. "Why should I tell you anything but where to stick it, sunshine? You cost us a lot of good souls. Friends."

"I know. Sometimes I happen to people without meaning to." Annoyed with the paltry light provided by their Scrolls, Opher used his left palm as a torch for the blue fire, casting azure light across the whole roundabout. The abrupt movement of Alkina's distortion in his Aura told him she might be preparing to attack again. "I'm using it to see, not to kill them. Calm your ass down."

Miltia confirmed it. "Al, stay there. It's okay," she said around him.

"Here's my bargain: information in exchange for a new way to prime Dust without using your Auras."

"Don't fuck with us! You can't prime Dust without Aura!" Melanie snapped back.

One look closed her mouth. "You'd doubt me after all you saw me do? To the Goliath? To the cloak girl? To your friends? To _her_?" he said, indicating Miltia. No answer from any of the Malachites. "Yeah. Speaking of cloak girl… what's her name?"

"Uhhhhh," Beatrix mumbled. "I don't—seriously, I don't believe this a conversation we should be havin'. I'd rather not attract her anger, you get me?"

"Just tell her I threatened to vaporize your whole crew so she attacks me instead. I'll be happy to beat her ass a second time. Besides, I already know Raven Branwen's name, I may as well have the full set."

Beatrix stepped back with surprise. "You… you know Lady Branwen?"

"Sure. She tried to kidnap me from Vale with her brother and some other bitch. Guess what happened."

"Amber Grace," she finally replied, fanning herself despite the brisk night air. "We just call her Miss or Lady Grace."

"Did you know she could do what she did?"

"No way," Miltia chimed in. "We've never seen her fight before. What was it?"

A cloud of brave moths gathered around his blue flame as Opher balanced how coy to be – after all, anything he said would probably end up in Amber's ears later. Those insects fluttered around and through it without harm. "Doesn't matter for now, I think. I remember you saying you gather information for her. Why does she need it?"

Beatrix wouldn't budge on this. "None of your damn business. Smack me around if you want. Some lines aren't gettin' crossed, honey."

"Fine. How long have you known her?"

"Uh… hell." She looked at her daughters for a moment. "Been a few years. She saved us from a Grimm attack and we've been workin' off that debt ever since. She keeps an eye on us, we feed her gossip, everyone's happy."

"Until you showed up," Melanie grumbled, her arms loosely folded.

"Uh huh." Opher cast a look around at the battered city, especially the district full of leaning skyscraper skeletons, which were now easier to view with the rising of the broken Moon. "How did you all end up out here?"

"We're exiles, of course." Beatrix smoothed down her blonde hair when he looked her way. "Expeditions go north, across the plain where the Frontier Corps can watch them for longer. Vale discards its trash toward the south. You won't find any soldiers or explorers down this way."

"That doesn't totally answer my question, but…" Opher was prepared to move on, but a cough from Miltia stopped him. He waited as Melanie switched sides to be with her sister.

"Dad… dad got killed trying to rob a Dust shop," the girl in red stated weakly. "That's why they threw us out."

His head tilted with confusion. "Why, did you help him during the robbery?"

"No. We didn't know anything about it. But we have his last name and people got... uncomfortable."

"Miltia, sweetheart, you don't have to tell him this," Beatrix said lowly.

"Talking is better than fighting," she mumbled back. His narrow-eyed gaze caused her to flinch. "W-what?"

"Why did they exile you straight away?" he asked. "You weren't the ones that did anything. I thought you'd at least get, I don't know, a warning? Maybe jail time, shit, not _this_."

Beatrix glanced up at the lights on the rooftops – some of her crew, on overwatch in case Opher did anything stupid. "Enforcement of the policy is… well, to put it politely, a _constant_ judgment call. If they think for a second you're not worth saving, they don't waste time. You're gone. Can't afford to let the rotten fruit spoil a whole Kingdom's worth of harvest, I suppose."

"Huh." The flame in his hand flickered a little as he thought. "Say a disaster happens at some industrial facility. How likely do you think it is the workers would be exiled, even if it was just a mechanical failure?"

"Depends on how big the disaster was," she answered, still fanning herself. "We've got a few that were kicked out 'cause of things like that. Say, your question wouldn't have anything to do with the smoke we saw last night, now would it?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'd say pretty likely. We could smell that awful stuff all the way down here. It must have been bad."

"It was. I had to put the fire out myself."

"That's interesting. You'll kill us without a second thought but risk your life to help people in Vale?" Beatrix put on a wry, almost hateful smirk. "Unless we're talkin' about some of your friends, then I understand. Wish _we_ could have helped ours."

"Yeah, well, feel free to beat me with shovels until you feel better. And for the record, I wasn't risking my life." Opher dropped his arm and let the flame hover nearby instead. While they stared at it with varying levels of confusion, none of them divulged that out loud. "Your whole gang is exiles, then?"

"More or less, honey. Mentally ill, widows and widowers, the grief-stricken, what few criminals Vale makes-"

He lost control of his anger. "Excuse me, _what_? You can get kicked out for mental illness? If someone you like dies? Are you fucking serious?" The gentle clicks of guns being cocked above them caused him to roll his eyes. "Mad at the concept, not at your boss, learn how to read the damn situation."

"Any emotional instability is a threat to the whole," Miltia explained, her words well-worn and practiced. "Like… we've been taught that since we were kids. Since mom was a kid, and that was a looooong time ago-"

"Watch your tongue, Miltiades," Beatrix warned with a smile. "Still, good point. Didn't you know?"

His expression became more cross with each passing second. "I apparently don't know a lot of shit that I should. One more question… why are there only four Kingdoms?"

"I'd reckon those particular economic and political issues are rather far above my head, friend." Beatrix smirked at his deadpan gaze. "Sure as hell ain't for lack of tryin'. Especially up north, they've been trying to take Vytal for years now. I will say this: seems like villages just can't get established around here. Something keeps wiping them out with no survivors. Gods only know what that might be; I'd say it was the Grimm's fault, but we're still here and whatever it is destroys _everything._ Grimm don't give a damn about buildings beyond cracking them open to get to their food."

He squinted again. "Huh. I'll look into it. All right, a deal's a deal. I'm gonna teach you the thing, but I have a request: show it to your whole gang. Show it to whoever you pick up. Show it to... well, everybody," he said, planning to determine how far the knowledge would – or perhaps should – spread.

They followed him as he walked toward the far end of the roundabout. "Oh, right, priming Dust without Aura. You're as fucking crazy as we are," Melanie remarked. She watched him flick a red fire Dust crystal all the way back toward where they'd been standing originally – the noise startled Alkina, who reluctantly skittered away toward a few guards that continued to linger in case Opher attacked again.

"Can you still see that crystal?" he asked, adjusting the output of his magical hover-lantern.

"Yeah," Miltia agreed after some adorable squinting. "Why?"

"Someone ask the planet to set it off. You don't even have to say it out loud." He regarded their disbelief with a shrug. "Just try. Like a prayer."

None of them spoke, nor made a move to do much of anything – although, after a few seconds, Miltia seemed to put _some_ effort into the idea if her screwed-up face was any indication. The crystal across the way began to glow and discharged with a gentle _fwoosh_ of orange flame instead of the expected explosion. Seconds later, Miltia burst into tears and collapsed to her knees. "'Tia?!" Melanie snapped – she and Beatrix were by her side in an instant.

This was the first time he'd seen the reaction Pyrrha and friends mentioned. It left him utterly bewildered. "Apparently that's a normal part of the process? Don't ask me why…" He stood back and let her express the emotion, giving her family plenty of room.

"What did you do?" Beatrix demanded a moment later, looking up at him.

Miltia recovered most of her calm, though she continued to lean on Melanie for support. "Mom, I'm okay. It just spooked me a little. It actually feels really nice."

"To answer your question, I didn't do shit. Remnant did." He checked the time on his Scroll and realized he was probably beginning to overstay his welcome. "I need to get back to Vale before someone misses me. I'll be in touch."

"Wait."

Alkina, who had come all the way across the roundabout with the guards in tow, walked right up to Opher with her head bowed. Two of those guards pinned him down with various levels of hatred in their eyes. "Can you…" She paused to turn the statue over in her hands. "Can you make more of these?"

Opher scratched under his hat a couple of times. "You want another one?"

"No. They do."

He looked at her escorts again. "Oh. If they have pictures, yes. The more, the better." One crack of his knuckles later and he was ready to create again. "I can forge a few before I leave, but I need to get back soon."

"How in the gods' name _did_ you make that, by the way?" Miltia asked as Melanie helped her stand again. "You just pulled it out of the street. I don't understand."

"With the same power your cloak girl has," he explained, taking a Scroll from one of the guards. His muted green eyes shone with disgust. "Which is why I got so pissed off about the way she was using it."

* * *

Half an hour and four memorial figurines later saw Opher on his way out of Mountain Glenn via wind Dust propulsion into the clear night sky. He gained so much altitude that he could see all three major landmarks in the region at once – Patch to his far left, a twinkling gem in the dark sea with the Moon roughly above it, Vale in the middle, outshining the island by a country mile, and the green decorative lights at the top of Beacon's CCT Tower to his right. Scattered through the air around him were the blinking navigation lights of airships headed in all sorts of directions. Straight up sat a thick blanket of stars. Once he'd caught enough air, his Scroll latched onto the tower's signal and made all kinds of noises indicating messages and voicemails as they piled onto the device. None of these were from Indigo or Schwarze – he sighed with disappointment – but he found one from Yang and about a dozen from Winter Schnee.

He read Yang's first. _Forget it. Fuck you._

"The hell did I do?" he mumbled, one hand on his hat to keep it from blowing away. The other messages were from Winter, who wanted to know where he was – in fact, the voicemails turned out to be the same thing. After a little bit of airship-dodging, he finally called her back.

"Where are you?" she said the moment they connected. "I've been trying to reach you since midnight."

"You're up late," he said, glowering at her tone. "Couldn't sleep, went out for some air. I'm on my way back now."

"Good. Pack your bags. They want you in Atlas. In person."

His forward momentum slowed to a stop; he reluctantly switched to gravity magic to hover since he still lacked any of the purple crystals. "Say that again?"

"To put it mildly, your testimonial/demonstration seems to have rocked a few boats." A beat passed. "My superiors want a direct interview."

"No."

"No?!"

"You heard me. For one thing, I'm not leaving Vale until I know Indigo and Schwarze are safe."

"And how do you plan on achieving that?"

"Figured living in the same apartment block would help ward off any potential idiots," he replied, watching a cargo airship lumber past some distance below. "I know there are a few people that must regret challenging me already."

"I dare not even ask what that means. Regardless, it may not work for much longer – they're being reactivated by the Army and deployed to Beacon."

"They're…" That he had to hear this from Winter and not from them was another stab to the heart. A sigh hid that sting. "For fuck's sake… how do you know this?"

"Does it matter? Now, then, when can I get you onto an airship?"

Once he got past being out of the loop, Opher realized that something was off about the whole conversation – specifically what topic _wasn't_ in it. "Hold on. I can't believe you're not curious about what happened at the refinery."

"What refinery?"

His face went blank. "The refinery in the port district. The one on fire yesterday? Surely you saw the smoke."

"I noticed it, yes, but I've not heard anything about the particulars."

"I was there. Hell, the police scanned me twice. Fuck me, _nobody's_ talked to me about it all day."

"Why would they?"

He crossed his free arm, glaring into the night. "I'm the one who put the damn fire out! I even told them that!" A _long_ pause came next, so long that he checked his Scroll for a dropped call.

"Vale has roughly the same policy Atlas does about these things," she explained at length. "Full suppression first, investigation later. A silent investigation. I wouldn't be surprised if the military grills you about it whenever you meet them." She growled for a moment. "Damn it, I forgot about that. You'll have to stay put until that meeting happens. Your passport would get suspended if you no-showed."

"Works for me, I'm not going anywhere until I smooth things over with them." Opher shifted back into forward flight, discarding the true art for wind Dust's embrace. He charged ahead slowly enough to avoid any apparent wind noise. "Here's a question: if Kingdoms are willing to hide trouble everyone can plainly see, what else are they covering up?"

Winter's answer was appropriately grave. "Mister Riese… you have _no_ idea."

"Yeah," he replied, voice full of irritation, "that is becoming abundantly fucking clear."


	23. The Fall

Ilia pounded on the dorm room door yet again, then walked anxiously around in the corridor when her knock wasn't immediately answered. "Blake Belladonna!" she called. "If I don't get some kind of response from you in the next ten seconds, I'm coming in! Somehow!"

The door _did_ open, but it was Nora that poked her messy head into view. "Ummmm," she moaned tiredly. They stared at each other for a moment.

"This is the wrong room, isn't it," Ilia finally mumbled, her face splotches turning pink.

"Uh huh. They're over there," she said, pointing to her left. "But Blake's across the hall."

She followed Nora's finger to the first door, then the next. "Huh? Why?"

Bleariness left her aqua eyes in favor of melancholy. "Ruby isn't feeling well."

"Oh." Ilia snapped her eyes back to Nora. "I'm sorry about waking you up. I'm just worried about her."

"Nah, it's okay." She looked back and up as a yawning, barely-coherent Pyrrha joined the conversation. "It's Ilia looking for Blake. She got the wrong room."

The redhead didn't even vocalize her answer, she just waved and went back to bed.

"Right, then, I'll let you get back to sleep. Sorry again." Ilia stepped away as Nora shut the door and walked over to where she'd pointed. Her knocking this time was much gentler. As she waited, she rapidly tapped her collarbone with the tip of her right index finger to fight off the nervousness.

She struck out again – this time it was Weiss who peered around the opening door. "It's well past midnight, this _better_ be important-" Ilia's anxious smile shut her up. "Oh, it's you. What's wrong?"

"Did something happen to Blake in Vale this morning? Why didn't she show up to class today? Why isn't she answering my messages?"

A silent Weiss fully opened the door and stepped back to let Ilia in. She found Blake cross-legged on one of the lower bunk beds; while she closed the door, the two Faunus stared at each other.

"I've been asleep most of the day, I'm sorry," Blake finally admitted. "Our trip to Vale didn't turn out so well."

"Are you in trouble? I'll go get my whip."

"Ilia, no…" She rolled out of bed, onto her bare feet, and stretched away the sleep. "Let me get dressed and we'll go for a walk. I'll explain. I promised Velvet I'd introduce you to her anyway."

"Are you going to tell her about all of it?" Weiss asked. "Because I'm not sure if that's a good idea…"

"Of course I am." Only after replying did Blake wonder if she meant the Ruby problem _and_ the Velvet problem. "Um… hmm." A glance went to Ilia. "I'll be right back."

Getting dressed meant a trip back to her team's room. She crossed the hall and opened the door with motions so quiet even she couldn't hear them. Inside, she saw Ruby and Yang in the bed she usually occupied, with the blonde wrapping her sister in a protective hug under the blanket – the same position they'd been in when Weiss and Blake left the room to them late that morning. While she frowned at them, Blake didn't dare wake them up; instead, she shuffled quietly to the closet. After switching her pajamas for a black t-shirt and some white sweatpants, plus a pair of purple-and-gray sneakers, she escaped just as silently and found Ilia in the hall waiting with Weiss in the doorway behind her. "They're still asleep, I think."

"Very well. I'll call you if anything happens. Otherwise, I think I'm going back to bed."

"All right." Blake waved Ilia along and together they walked toward the staircase. "Did they tell you about the remote priming thing?"

Ilia shrugged at her. "Ciel said not to use it, but not much else. I hadn't even tried it yet."

"Good. Don't." Blake led the way down the steps. "Ruby is unwell. Yang thinks that might have something to do with why."

"I don't get it."

"The person we went to Vale to see – she's an Army officer. She told us remote priming does the same thing Grimm exposure does. Ruby... she's having hallucinations."

"Oh." Her smoky blue eyes dimmed with worry. "Do you guys know for sure, or…?"

"Not yet. We're hoping she can go back into the city for a full examination. I'm sorry I didn't message you back, I was busy helping everyone try to calm her down." They left the building and entered the chilly night air.

Ilia's thin brows were knitted in thought. "Hold on, you've only had… what, three trials?"

"Yes."

"There's no way that's enough exposure to cause hallucinations. How much of this remote priming thing were you guys doing?"

"A lot. We've been trying to figure out a strategy for the survival courses. We were even experimenting in case we got the all-clear to teach the other students." Blake hugged herself lightly as they walked on. "I know what you're about to ask. I'm fine. Yang is fine, Weiss is fine. But Ruby isn't and we don't know why." She didn't need to look to know Ilia was staring at her.

"Then what makes Ruby different if you've all gone through the same stuff?"

Blake slowed to a stop, hugging herself as she looked around to see if anyone else was around. "I wish I didn't have to ask this of you, but can you keep something quiet?"

"If you want me to, yes," Ilia said, her thick ponytail swaying in the gentle breeze. "Unless you've done something bad. 'Cause if you did, I'm calling your parents and getting you grounded."

She loosed a weak chuckle. "No, no… Ruby has some kind of ability. I don't mean her Semblance, it's something else. Maybe… maybe the combination of having a Semblance, plus the exposure, plus the remote priming, plus whatever this other thing does pushed her over the edge."

Ilia rested her hands on her hips. "Wait. Ability?"

"It's—I don't really know," she replied with a hands-raised shrug. "I think it hurts the Grimm somehow, there was a flash of light when she used it. She screamed really weird, too. I know it made her eyes bleed."

"Ick." As they got going again, she noticed Blake shivering gently. "That's why I'm still wearing my dress. You wanna go back and get a jacket?"

"I'll deal with it."

"I tried. If you get sick, don't blame me." Ilia's head snapped away when she heard a loud, distant sneeze, followed by an accented _"I needed that lung!"_ which caused her to grin. "Speaking of sick…"

"Oh! That sounds like Velvet!" Blake put her enhanced vision to work as she jogged away, searching the wide stone paths.

They found her near the library, on her way toward the cluster of short administrative towers bunched around Beacon's main CCT structure, pushing her cart along and sniffling occasionally. She wasn't alone, either; Coco, with a strange, glowing broom on her shoulder, was right beside her rabbit-eared friend. "How many times did I try to give you a hoodie, you damn fool?"

"Oh, come off it, once I get going I'll be too hot for a jacket." One of her ears became floppy – she could _feel_ the smirk beaming down. "You know what I meant!" That floppy ear jerked upright when she heard approaching steps.

Despite not hearing anything herself, Coco understood the reflex and looked around for approaching danger. "Oh, it's Blake. And… someone."

"Huh?" Velvet leaned around the taller girl to see.

The first thing she did upon arrival was apologize. "Sorry for scaring you. If I did. Velvet, Miss—um, Coco, this is my friend Ilia."

Velvet didn't come out from behind Coco, instead reverting to her usual cling-and-hide strategy. The too-huge splotches on Ilia's cheeks and forehead made her curious regardless. "You've got some… big freckles?"

"Watch and I'll show you why." Figuring it was too dark for a color-shift show, she demonstrated a different trait – her _considerable_ tongue, which spooled out and launched from her mouth in the same motion, extending for at least a couple of meters before it rapidly retracted.

"Fuck me!" Coco snapped with surprise. "You're a Faunus!"

Blake, used to the sight, crossed her arms with a roll of her eyes. "Sometimes she uses it to write. Or to use her Scroll. Or to open doors, which is really disgusting."

"Hey, what else am I supposed to do when my hands are full, princess?"

"Gods damn, I bet I could figure out some interesting shit to do with a tongue like that." She didn't even flinch when Velvet smacked her firmly in the back of the head. "Nice to meet you, anyway. Actually…" Her amusement subsided as she looked down toward Blake. "Hey, why was Glynda on my ass tonight about the remote priming thing? She said to stop using it."

"She didn't say why?"

"Nah. I figured it was so I wouldn't pitch a fit."

Blake scratched at one of her feline ears with a frown. "We learned it affects your Aura like Grimm exposure does."

All four of them were silent for a while; Velvet's nervous Coco-cling became a full hug from behind. "Good thing I haven't used it much, I guess. Better that Velvet hasn't used it at all."

"Hmmmm." She finally stepped out into full view, both ears floppy with thought. "I don't really mess around with Dust for work, sooooo I guess I'm all good."

"Oh, uh, by the way, am I just supposed to ignore the glowing broom, or…"

They glanced at Ilia, then at the object in question. "She does have a point," Blake admitted a moment later. "What is that?"

Velvet hopped up, took the broom off of Coco's shoulder, and broke it in half like a twig. After a second, she broke it in half a few more times until the pieces were small enough to crush between her palms. When she unclasped her hands again, it was gone. "Sorry, that one's my fault. I forgot to turn my Semblance off."

"What the heck?" Ilia said, motioning at her with both arms. "She can _make_ things?"

"Don't look at me, I had no idea!"

A blush spread across Velvet's cheeks – though the makeup she used to conceal her scars cut subtle, flesh-toned tiger stripes through the red tint. "It's no big deal, I just twist parts of my Aura into distortions that act like stuff. I made lazy butt up here a broom so she'd help me sweep. Guess how well that turned out."

"Girl, I don't sweep. I was holding it 'cause it looked cool."

"Velvet, that's amazing!" Blake exclaimed while a grumbling Ilia paced around nearby, arms crossed and pouting. "Don't mind her, she doesn't have a Semblance. I think she's a little jealous."

"Hey, at least she doesn't have to worry about the baggage." Coco grinned at Velvet, who continued to mumble and shuffle on her feet in response to the praise. "It's a shame Vel-Vel's too cute to be a badass. She could kill all the Grimm for us."

"Cocoooooooo…"

Ilia continued to pace until her Scroll rang. "What's up?" was her answer to the call. "I said I was gonna check on Blake." A pause. "Yeah, she's okay, but…" Her eyes narrowed a bit. "All right, all right, I'll come back." With that, she hung up and looked at them. "I gotta go, Ciel's being a pain."

"Is something wrong?"

"She's just…" Ilia rolled her eyes. "...kind of uptight. I'll see you guys around."

Blake nodded once. "Okay. I'm going to talk to Velvet and Coco a little longer. Message me when you wake up."

"Yep. Nice to meet you and your stupid amazing Semblance." She waved a goodbye and walked off back toward the dorms, smile fading and pace increasing the farther out of their sight she got. A few minutes of quick walking got her back to her own dorm room, but before going in, she had to perform the specified amount of knocks first. Ciel opened the door. "You called, mom?"

"Ha ha." She let Ilia into a darkened room, closed the door, then turned on a small flashlight attached to a headband.

Penny, meanwhile, was seated in a chair in the middle of the room, facing the door, smiling brightly despite the fact that the back of her skull was split open like the petals of a flower. Her hair bow – and her hair – rested in her lap. "Welcome back!" she greeted as Ciel resumed fiddling with the complicated bits inside her head. "I have a message for you!" Ilia's expression made her smile. "Don't be alarmed, I quite literally cannot feel a thing!"

Her tanned face screwed up hard. "Yeaaaah. What message?"

Ciel, screwdriver in one hand, glared at something in Penny's artificial brain. "The Colonel has some work for you. Where did you go with Blake?"

"On a little walk. I met Velvet and Coco, they seem nice."

"Watch yourself around Scarlatina. Her background information…" She paused a moment to _carefully_ loosen a tiny screw. "...is a little weird. There's a dead end we can't explain."

"Thanks for telling me that after the fact. Oh, and for letting me find out about what the priming thing does from Blake instead of you."

"I had a good reason."

It was Penny who explained that reason. "Yes, because we're almost certain it's a lie. We didn't want to pressure you with it while you were so agitated."

"I'm stunned she held off from running over there for this long," Ciel admitted. The screwdriver was set aside in favor of a hefty cubical chunk of copper with large, thin raised fins.

Ilia froze for a moment before turning and making sure the door was locked. She grabbed another chair and sat down within whisper range of her teammates. "Excuse me, what?"

"The man upstairs says I have the most sophisticated Aura detection suite on the planet. Ciel has been testing remote priming since before you got here and her Aura hasn't changed at all. Not even within margins of error. It is completely stable."

Ilia gripped the back of the chair with white-knuckle confusion and leaned in despite already being right next to them. "How official was the person Blake's team talked to?"

Ciel slowly, gently attached the copper block – a new heatsink – to Penny's main processor cores, a task which prevented her from answering for a few moments. "Penny intercepted a couple of calls between Goodwitch and a Valesian Army Brigade General in the Academy Liaison Office – Zhen Xuefeng is her name. If she's the one they spoke with, then that's almost like hearing it from _our_ boss."

"Why would the military lie about… about…"

"About a method of Dust activation which could change the face of Remnant as we know it?" Penny's left eye swiveled unnaturally to gaze at Ilia since she couldn't move her head. Even Ciel paused to look up – but neither said anything. They simply allowed the implications to sink in.

Sink in they did, widening Ilia's round eyes until she had to stare at something else. "Wow. Miss Khan wasn't kidding, was she?"

Penny's regularly-scheduled smile resumed. "Ciel had that look once, too." A tap on the shoulder told her tech support was done; the lotus-blossom skull plates closed up and she returned hair and hair bow to their proper places. "That's why the Colonel called. The Army deployment is happening in just a few hours. She wants you to…" Caroline Cordovin's voice spoke next. ".. _.figure out what else they might be lying about._ " Then Penny reclaimed control of her throat. "Perhaps their response will give us some idea of what they believe happened to Opher Riese."

"Surely they've talked to him by now, but…" she muttered as she put away her tools. "The Captain says he's the one that stopped the fire in Vale last night. Maybe they're scared.

"Great, I guess. I hope this guy is on our side." Ilia let her head hang briefly. "Does she want me outside of campus on this?"

"Probably. Your suit is in the closet."

She got up and walked over to retrieve it, desperate for something else to think about. It awaited her in a small steel box, which looked like a Dust case – on purpose, to conceal the nature of its actual contents. The garment itself didn't seem like much: a full-body suit whose material shimmered in the closet's overhead light, somehow fashioned from a single piece of fabric with no visible seams. The suit was designed to cover her from the nose, via a solid face mask, down to her ankles. She stared at it for a while.

"Ilia."

Her eyes snapped over to Ciel in the doorway. "Yeah?"

"You can't tell Blake. Or Ruby. Or anyone. Not yet. Understand?"

Another secret on the pile. Her chest tightened with unease. "I get it, Ciel. I get it. I think I'm gonna try and catch a nap first. Wake me when you need me."

* * *

Schwarze, pacing around Indigo's living room, caught her staring at her ponderous gun and snapped her fingers, keen to break her free from whatever memories had their teeth in her heart. "Indy. Indy!" she chirped loudly.

"Eh?" she said while looking over. "Oh. Sorry."

"Stay focused on the now." She continued to pace around the large glass coffee table, constantly adjusting the fit of her black beret. Both women were in their Valesian Army uniforms; while Indigo maintained her usual long, thin, ponytail, Schwarze's preferred braid had to go in favor of a folded ponytail whose loose end curved over and down like a waterfall behind her hat. The amount of service ribbons stuck to the upper-right chest of Indigo's coat was slightly more than she boasted, but both had the same rank insignia across the yellow circular flash of their berets: three silver bars supported by a chevron. "Come to think of it, shouldn't this be much easier?"

"Shut up, dumbass."

Despite the lukewarm reaction, Schwarze maintained her smile. "Protection detail! Perhaps this time it'll be what it says on the tin."

"Not like we have a choice either way." Indigo snatched up her immense rifle with a defeated sigh. "You can carry the duffel bags."

"Wait a second, you can't technically order me around! We're the same rank now!"

"I'm already gonna carry your guns and mine, you wanna switch?" she fired back, ochre eyes narrowed.

Her cheeks puffed in a pout. "Arschloch! I'd break my wrists!"

"Then get the bags already." She watched, with mild amusement, as her relatively willowy friend struggled to wrangle three large, gray rucksacks which contained all the things they'd require for their deployment. "I sure hope we're not forgetting anything."

"We could always ask Opher to bring it to us. He does know how to deliver." They shared a long, silent, awkward look. "You… did tell him, didn't you?"

"No. Did you?"

The bags in her arms went right back onto the couch in a pile. She sat next to them, hands clasped in her lap. "If we're going to say goodbye, then we should _say_ goodbye."

Indigo felt a rant coming on and had to move around, easily shuffling in circles despite the weight of her gun. "I think I've said all I want to say to him. He lied about his passport, I have no idea what the hell he's got going on with that bitch from Atlas, he… he didn't even tell us he'd been attacked in my fucking shop! My shop! What the fuck?!"

"'That bitch from Atlas'? Don't be rude." Then her face softened. "But about Opher..."

"But?" she snapped, waving the gun around with one hand – careful, of course, not to allow her fingers anywhere near the trigger. "But what? The motherfucker is a _criminal_. If the Army finds out, I'm dead. You're probably dead. Just us knowing him is dangerous. There is no but. Not now."

Schwarze tilted her head subtly. "Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?"

"Oh my gods, we fuck the guy once and you're willing to overlook anything," she huffed, turning away from her. "I mean, look, I'm glad you felt good enough with him to do it. I just wish it had been someone better."

"I am not willing to overlook anything. I'm just… thinking." Her expression remained placid, almost contemplative. "Also, better than someone willing to risk his life for my only friend? I'm not sure how much better you think I could do."

Indigo had no counter for this. She allowed the butt plate of her rifle to rest gently on the wooden floor. "I—I mean… but…"

"Aha! Now the but is in your hands!" Schwarze weathered Indigo's glare with a tiny smirk. "We're usually the ones shutting people out. Still… it was _so_ nice for a while."

"Yeah." Indigo cast a thoughtful look out the windows at the sleeping city. "Then he turned out to be a liar."

Schwarze's voice was almost chipper. "Like you?"

Indigo's shoulders drew up defensively. "Look, I glossed over the airship thing to buy time. Besides, he's a straight up murderer, I heard what he said to you."

A little bit of that cheer went away. "Like us."

"Fucking hell." She had to sit down on the other sofa. "We really are three peas in a pod. No wonder we get along." Out came her Scroll; she gazed at Opher's unacknowledged apology with a scowl. "It was nice, wasn't it. I don't know what the fuck to do. He's a bastard, but I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him."

"I think it's nicer to be alone together when it's three of us instead of _just_ us. I'm not saying that because I don't love you. I'm saying it because I do. We need more shoulders to bear this burden."

"Hey, I've got friends! What about Heather?"

"You know that's not the kind of friend I mean." She tapped her chin with a slender finger. "Also, we've not bedded her. Or at least I haven't..."

"She ain't my type." More staring at her Scroll. "I guess… I guess we'd be safer at Beacon than we would be living right next to him. This would be easier if he was completely honest with us."

"I don't think we've been completely honest either."

"Hey, he hasn't asked! Except that one time. I wasn't telling him a damn thing 'cause he wasn't telling us much either." She rubbed her forehead firmly for a while. "Not saying anything isn't the same as outright lying." The tone of the silence told her those icy blue eyes were watching. "It's not!"

"Hmm. I'm saying that perhaps, _perhaps_ , it might not be the worst idea to let him hang around."

Indigo leaned forward. "Isn't it? Especially with whoever the fuck it is after his ass now. If they're as strong as he is, then…" The smile which now spread across Schwarze's face caused her to fall silent. "You're plotting something, aren't you."

"Like I said, my dear, I'm thinking. What if – and don't laugh – what if cutie is as powerful as the Zhens? They've had us in a vice for a long while now. Perhaps he can balance the scales."

"Don't be stupid, nobody in the Army could beat Xuefeng and Xiulan, much less…" A quagmire of memories brought her statement to a halt – the airship crash, the attempted execution, the absolute flippancy with which he treated the Grimm. "Shit." She stood up, eyes wide. "Holy shit."

"Exactly," Schwarze said with a smile. "He wants to help us. Let's _let_ him help us. It doesn't matter if he really is powerful enough to beat them or not – if he can make them think twice, that might extend our stay." She lost that grin. "Besides… we should try to live before we die. Even with the evidence, my family name, _and_ his help, they're going to get us eventually."

"Yeah." Indigo ceased staring at her boots and looked up. "Always devious when it counts, ain'tcha?"

"Devious? Not at all. We're not making him do anything he doesn't already want to. We'd simply be asking for his help." Her lips pursed in thought. "He didn't have to tell us about his passport. He trusts us. Maybe we should do the same – at a distance, for now, until whatever he has going on blows over." It was her turn to stare at the floor. "It's a risk, but we should explain the arrangement. Not _why_ it exists, just what it is."

"I dunno, man, what if he gets himself killed trying to help us or something? What if _he_ kills someone else?"

"That's out of our hands." Indigo's frown refused to wane, so she added, "We can ask him to stay cool, but there's not much we can do about the Army."

"Huh." She rubbed at her eyes for a while. "Well, maybe if we all get into trouble, we'll all get exiled together. He absolutely fucking wrecks the Grimm. We'd last for a long time."

"He'll fly us to safety!" she said through a chuckle. "I should take him up on his offer one of these days."

"It's a literal trip." Indigo doffed her beret for a moment to smooth back her hair. "Okay, maybe being stuck with each other isn't the worst thing in the world. Fine. In for a Liento, in for a Lien, I guess, why the hell not." Her pale friend got another smile. "You dropped all of this right now on purpose, didn't you?" she quipped, staring at a ribbon in Schwarze's rack with several vertical blue-and-white stripes, plus three tiny bronze star devices. "You tactical fuck."

Schwarze displayed a toothy grin. "I figured we could have a little release ceremony before we go play with the Grimm. There's been a lot of bother lately. No point being stressed, hm?"

"Always thinking about your gunbaby, aren't you."

"Hm hm hm." She stood up and moved Indigo's beret again to plant a kiss on her forehead. "The spotter's creed applies everywhere. In uniform or not. On the battlefield or not. Perhaps cutie can keep an eye on the _both_ of us."

"Maybe. I'll… I'll text him when we get settled in. No point waking him up at four in the morning."

"Oh! Ask him if he'll water our houseplants while we're gone!"

Indigo busted out laughing as she maneuvered her gun back to her shoulder. "Priorities, beanpole, priorities. Come on. Get our shit so we can be on the curb when they get here."

"Yes ma'am," she chirped again while wrangling their luggage. "Let's be nice to Winter, too. The more friends we can make, the better."

"Speaking of, how the fuck did a Schnee end up in the Regular Army—wait." Her eyes got wide. " _Wait_ , what if the same thing happened to her that happened to you?"

"Could be. I noticed she has black eyebrows, too. I wonder if we're… hmm. Never mind." Schwarze stood rigidly as Indigo helped strap a rucksack to her shoulders, then arranged the other two in her arms to carry. "All right! Let's go!"

Once Indigo had Schwarze's weapon case in her hand, the two women proceeded to move out, enter the elevator, then leave it and the building to wait on the sidewalk for their ride. "It was nice of them to not to make us go to brigade HQ again," Schwarze said from behind her stack of luggage.

Indigo squinted up and down the silent city street. "Literally the least they could fuckin' do."

Shortly afterward, a large six-wheeled truck turned onto their street, lumbering to a stop with a shrill squeak from its brakes. Doors on the rear swung open; two occupants already inside helped them get their cargo loaded – other soldiers in the same uniform, with the same black berets, but different rank insignia and _far_ fewer service ribbons. Once settled, Indigo shut the doors and one of them banged on the back wall of the cab to get the truck moving again. He turned on more of the overhead lights to get a better look. "Hey, hey! Good morning-" Their bars and chevrons caused him to fall silent and blink. "Ma'am. And ma'am."

"Lance Corporal." Indigo looked over at the other dark-skinned woman – girl, really, she looked right out of training – to greet her. She only had one silver bar across her yellow beret flash. "Private."

"H-hello, ma'am!"

"Don't be nervous!" Schwarze assured, eyes closed and smiling wide. "We don't bite! Well. She might."

They weren't necessarily fearful of getting chomped; their eyes were glued to the marks on Indigo's rifle. Three gold rings. Those shining marks on the barrel were her life for so long – a military career full of pride and misery compressed into a set of metallic stripes a few millimeters thick. "What?" she snapped, trying to get them to stop staring.

"Oh, uh, nothing, ma'am, it's just…" The female Private fumbled with her thoughts. "I didn't know you could get _that_ many gold tally marks on a-"

"Yeah, well, I don't really feel like talking about it."

Her tone was enough to kill all conversation. The junior soldiers silently leaned back and forth into the corners as the truck rolled toward its destination. Before long, it came to a stop and they all piled out, with Indigo and Schwarze wearing a rucksack each and the latter carrying the third. They walked toward a three-story building with two occupied airship pads out front. A pilot leaned out the cockpit window of the vessel on their right and waved them over.

While Schwarze expected them to help load up the cargo, she didn't expect the newbies to strap themselves into the jump seats as well. "You're part of the deployment?"

"Yes, ma'am. We're using it as extra training before we get sent out further afield," the red-eyed Lance Corporal explained.

"So we're babysitting you _and_ the Beacon kids."

Schwarze crossed her arms. "Indigo, be nice."

Once the pilot looked into the hold and saw everyone was belted in, the rear cargo ramp closed and they were off. The rookies were still too nervous to speak, and neither Indigo nor Schwarze felt like raising their voices over the engines, so the trip passed in silence. They alighted on Beacon's pad one minutes later. As they left the airship, they were met by more soldiers in black berets with rucksacks on their shoulders. One of them, a green-eyed woman that stood closer to Schwarze's height and whose gray hair was too short for a bun, broke away from the pack to say hello. Her insignia was a single vertical gold bar – both women came to attention, but didn't salute since their hands were full.

"Sergeant First Class Stahl. Sergeant First Class Voss. Welcome. I'm Lieutenant Cinzia Vespa, company CO," she greeted while adjusting her rectangular glasses. Like the other troops, she boasted a severe lack of ribbons compared to Indigo and Schwarze – another fresh face despite being a commissioned officer.

Lieutenant? _Company?_ Schwarze couldn't help but tilt her head. "Ah, ma'am, HQ told us we'd be the garrison NCOs, but I assumed…"

"Most of 2nd Brigade is with an expedition going north until they gather enough Hunters. They could only spare a company for this." Vespa donned a wry smile. "I mean, not that it matters, who cares about these kids, right?"

"Don't let them hear you say that, ma'am," a snickering male soldier replied.

"It's true, though, all the guys in the big box are worried about is finding the security breach," added another young woman with a Private's bar on her beret.

Although they shared a look, neither Indigo nor Schwarze added anything to the conversation and simply continued to stand at attention until Vespa's eyes returned to them. "Okay, enough yapping. Fall in by rank."

They formed up and marched, about three dozen soldiers in total, with Vespa, Indigo, and Schwarze side-by-side at the front due to their higher ranks. Their precise movement would have been quite the sight – if any of the students were awake to see it. In fact, the only audience was Velvet and Coco, who remained well off to the side of the walkway. They moved directly toward Beacon Tower, up the steps, and into the lobby, a process that took some time to complete. There were so few overhead lights on that they could hardly see.

"Okay," a slightly annoyed Vespa said, "I thought someone was going to meet us here." She glanced back at her troops. "At ease."

"Ma'am, if nobody's awake, can we go home then?"

"Very funny, Private Winthrop."

Indigo rested her gun on the floor, barrel pointed up, and allowed herself a sigh while Schwarze set down her extra rucksack and motioned for her weapon case; as she handed it over, the elevator doors ahead opened. From within stepped Olivine in her usual armored dress, moody, glaring, and towering over all of them, even the men. "It's past the old man's bedtime," she stated gruffly, "And he put me in charge of this shit show. My name is Olivine Duprix."

Vespa stared up at her as she approached. "Wait, what about the Assistant Headmaster-"

"What did I _just_ say?" she growled, tossing her wavy green hair back over her shoulder. None of the other soldiers dared to speak, which caused Olivine's frown to become a grin. "You're here to reinforce our patrols. The new kids are all freshmen. We don't send freshmen out 'cause they barely know how to fight. Most of our juniors and seniors are dead already, and the ones that are left probably can't handle whoever is responsible for the kidnapping."

"We're not here to do _any_ investigation at all?" Schwarze asked – a mistake, as she received a bronze-tinted glower from on high that made her shrink with anxiety.

"You're a fancy set of curtains to cover the broken window until we fix it. That's all. I'm not in the mood to listen to Sienna Khan bitch about her former kids being in danger." Olivine wandered over to Indigo, whom she absolutely dwarfed, for a more thorough examination. "Hell of a gun you have there."

She wouldn't back down. "Maybe I'll get to use it," was her snarky answer.

"Heh. We should get along just fine." The titanic Winter Maiden peered down at Vespa next. "You already got the patrol instructions from Glynda, right?" The Lieutenant could only nod. "Then brief your troops and get to work. I wanna borrow these two for a minute."

"H-how am I supposed to brief the Sergeants if I'm not here-"

"Please stop asking stupid questions." Olivine waved her right arm at the other soldiers to dismiss them. "Get lost." They did – though it took a moment – and she finally found herself alone with Indigo and Schwarze. Their copious ribbon racks earned a glance. "I hope you're ready for anything, 'cause we don't know shit. Your friend wasn't very talkative."

Schwarze tried to match Indigo's courage and puffed her chest out a bit. "Trust us, we know how you feel."

"If you say so." She rubbed at her chin for a moment. "I can't believe you willingly jumped in that shuttle."

"I wasn't gonna stand around and cower." Indigo rested her rifle on one shoulder and grinned. "If I'd had this baby, we wouldn't have gone down. Fucker can tear the beak off of a Nevermore at one kilometer. Schwarze can't even lift the damn thing."

"That is true," she confirmed with a nod.

"Cute." Subconscious urging by her Maiden caused Olivine to veer off script entirely. "You… you know Riese, don't you?" she asked, rubbing at her hair as she glanced away.

Indigo cocked her head. "Yeah, why?"

"Maybe _she's_ doing the investigation?" Schwarze whispered down.

"Oh, right." Her face screwed up in thought. "He didn't tell us anything either. Said it was to keep us safe from whoever is after him."

"What's he like?"

They shared a confused glance. "What does that matter?" Schwarze asked.

"I'm trying to understand why he wouldn't talk!" Olivine snapped, more forcefully than she intended. Even Indigo recoiled. "Sorry. I'm dealing with a lot of shit right now."

"Riiiiight…" Indigo scratched her hair with her free hand. "I dunno what to tell you. He's a sarcastic asshole that doesn't seem to give a damn about anything…" Her mouth drooped into a frown. "Except us, I guess. And his old girl – I mean, the mother of his child, of course he does."

She crossed her massive arms. "I'm sure he's thrilled you're gonna be staying where he got kidnapped, then." Her bronze eyes snapped open wide. "Hold on. He has a kid?"

"Look, lady, I've said enough already. Come on, let's go before the Lieutenant has a reason to be pissed off at us." Indigo led Schwarze out of the lobby around a silent Olivine, who made no attempt to stop them – or to move at all. She didn't even turn to watch them leave.

"He has a…" she mumbled again, her Maiden dead silent. Tears fell down her cheeks. "Why am I…"

A blackbird hopped up into one of the chairs nearby, in a spot where it would be obscured by bookshelves and the empty reception desk. As Olivine walked over, it gently unfurled into a masked Raven. "What's up with the waterworks?" she asked as her big sister drew near.

"I don't know." She reached over to the wall and flipped a switch to kill all the lights, which plunged them into almost total darkness. "Why the hell are you here? I thought you were in Mountain Glenn."

"Not yet. I've got my people set up on the shoreline for tonight. I figured I'd have a look at what the Army sent." Raven lounged back in the seat, draping her arms over the arms of the chair. "So that's them, huh? The tall one doesn't look like much. I wouldn't fuck with Stahl, though. Maiden or not, that's not a gun I wanna get shot with."

"He has a child."

She sat up straight again. "Wait. Really? Where? How old?"

"I dunno, mama bird, all I got was that he has a kid somewhere." Olivine continued to wipe tears from her cheeks. "Fuck, I can't stop crying."

"Yeah, well, the only Carmine I ever heard of didn't look like Pyrrha Nikos and I'm pretty damn sure she never had time to get knocked up."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause she ran with a tribe out near Oscuro until I let Cinder loose on 'em." Raven's slumped body language told Olivine she was frowning behind her mask. Her voice got even lower. "She's with Lapis and Amber now. The succession process is underway."

Now the giant had another reason to weep. "How long?"

"Whenever Lapis thinks she's ready. The old woman left the decision up to her."

"Fuck." Olivine turned away to catch her breath. "I can't believe Amber volunteered for this."

"They've come to an understanding."

"You'll have to tell me that story later." She finally had the outward emotions under control, but a frigid emptiness continued to sit in her chest. Olivine donned her usual lidded glare to hide it and faced Raven again. "You talk to the old man?"

"About what?"

"Don't play stupid with me."

The mask came off so Raven could stare at her properly. "I have no sympathy for idiots. If Yang follows her sister into the abyss, it ain't my fuckin' problem. I'm going back to my tribe." She snapped out her hand toward the nearest entrance, using a subtle puff of ice magic to freeze the door open; after another glare up at her big sister, she curled up into her bird form and fluttered away into the night.

* * *

"How did it go with the military yesterday? Are my girls about to become soldiers? I knew you were too talented to be Huntresses!"

"Daaaaaad…" Ruby rubbed at her bleary eyes with a sigh before gazing out at the sunrise on the western horizon. She stood near Beacon Cliff and the airship pads, though not close to the edge, hoping that the sunlight would give her the energy that too many hours of restless sleep didn't. One hand was jammed into her jacket pocket, while the other held her Scroll to her ear. "That's not what we talked about."

"Then what they did want?"

"We… thought we'd figured out a new thingy to help people in combat. Turns out it's not good for you. The Brigade General had to set us straight, but we're all good now."

"That blows. Hey, though, you're coming up with tactics! Good! How's stuff otherwise?"

"It's… erm…" Ruby's cheeks lost much of their rosy color. "It happened again. I saw something that wasn't there. I don't get it. I'm not stressed, we made it through all the hard trials. Things are super calm right now. Mostly. Why am I freaking out?"

A long, long silence followed until Taiyang blurted out, "I can take some leave and fly over to see you. Right now! Seriously. Right now. I'll even swim."

"Dad…" She rubbed her eyes. "You can't just drop everything and leave Patch, Headmistress Spaatz will get mad at you."

"Excuse me? My daughter isn't feeling well. I'll drop things I'm not even holding."

"Unnnh." Ruby shuffled a boot through the grass. "I'm okay. I've got Yang, and Uncle Qrow… and Weiss. And Blake." Her eyes rolled around in thought. "And Pyrrha, and... geez when did I make all these friends? Holy cats."

"Ha! I knew you'd be popular!"

Another big sigh. "Hey, did this ever happen to you or mom? Seeing things, I mean."

"Me? Nope. As for Summer, if it did, she never told me. She _would_ have told me. Then again…" Taiyang fell silent again for a good while. "Only one of her parents had a Semblance. Both of yours do. I… I wonder if..."

The sad shift in his tone drove Ruby to dispense a hasty reassurance. "Dad, no. Don't do that. I don't even know if that's the reason. I don't know a lot right now. Once I get checked out, then we'll figure out what to do."

"When is that gonna happen?"

Ruby slumped in her boots. "I… don't know that either."

"I _really_ should fly out there."

"Daaaaaaaaaaaad, no. We are handling it. It is handled. I just wanted you to know what was up." Off to the right, she caught a glimpse of two soldiers making their rounds among the network of streams which fed the lake below. From this distance, she couldn't tell much about them besides the fact that one seemed to have a rifle as big as the person carrying it. "I don't want to keep you-"

"You're not keeping me from anything."

"-dang it, you know what I meant." Her frown deepened. "Look… try not to worry about me too much. Okay? I'm cool. Lots of people are watching out for me."

"I'm insulted you think I ever stop worrying. I love you, Ruby. Tell Yang I love her too."

"I will. Love you too, dad." Once she put her Scroll away, however, she lost most of her calm and squatted down – the tall grass was too wet with cold dew to sit – and stared at the distant city on the plains. "Stupid brain," she growled, bonking herself in the side of the head with one fist. "Just work!" Those hits became lighter and slower. "Please… just… just work…"

Stress finally broke through in the form of tears and subtle sobs; eventually, she plopped down on the grass and hugged her knees, loosing a series of muffled "It's okay, I'm okay," statements from beneath the puffy red sleeves of her coat. "It's been a whole day. Whole day. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine." The low, distant howl of Grimm somewhere in the forest caused her to tense up.

_Breathe. Just breathe._

Another distant howl in the forest came and went. She looked up toward it and saw a juvenile Creep, partially hidden by the tall grass, with its spiny back toward her. When it turned its head to look, she sprang to her feet, arms splayed with fright. "Wh-wh-wh-wh…" she babbled, heart pounding in her ears. "Wait, no. You're not real."

Yet the blades of grass yielded to its body as it turned and approached. With no one else around to confirm or deny that these beasts were solid, she had to err on the side of caution. "Waaaaaait a minute," Ruby gasped as she began to back away. More little monsters rose from the grass. "W-wait a minute…" They popped up in droves, no matter which direction she looked. They fell of out the bushes along the walkway. They dropped from the trees and rolled over onto their legs. They crawled out from the supports of the airship pads. The second she thought to Semblance dash and looked toward where she wanted to go, a massive squirming pile of horror awaited no matter where her eyes went. The horde totally surrounded her, slowly forcing her away from the campus.

"You're not real!" she snapped again. "You're not!" Pounding agony rattled her skull. " _You're not real_!"

The pain increased until it began to puddle in her eyes. The Creeps were so thick now that they had to crawl over each other to get to her, falling down heaps of themselves as they went; they piled up at the rear like a wave, writhing and thrashing. Having her eyes open became too painful. Ruby slammed both her hands over her face. "Ow… ow ow ow ow ow!" she gasped, still backing away. She forced herself to look again and found the beasts just inches from the toes of her boots, lashing out with their sharp teeth. Terror boiled into primal fear as a scream tore itself from her throat. The world flashed white. Ruby's legs crumpled underneath her, but she did not fall to the ground – instead, she tumbled awkwardly off the edge of the cliff, limp and lifeless, toward the lake below.

Something grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her upward. Instinct curled Ruby into a tight ball the second she came to rest on the cold grass; she covered her head and trembled in agony. It seemed like a voice was yelling at her – whose it was, she had no idea. The ringing in her ears drowned out everything. After a few moments of realizing she wasn't dead, the panic began to fade, though the pain remained somewhat constant. "Agh!" she finally gasped, jerking away when she felt hands on her shoulder. "No! No!"

"Ruby! It's me! Stop wiggling!"

Her eyes finally snapped open. Standing overhead was a frantic Qrow – her vision was so blurry that she only knew it was him because of the tattered red splotch waving out from behind his fuzzy form. "Uncle… Uncle Qrow? Owwwwww…"

"You're bleeding," he said, noting the red liquid which trickled down her cheeks. His fingers tingled with the sensation of her holy magic discharge. "Kid, what happened?! You damn near fell off the cliff!"

"I…" She had to be sure; though she couldn't pick out details, the grass around them was completely green. They _weren't_ real. "I fell?"

Someone else was on their way, if the torrent of panicked shouting was any indication. Yang, still in her sleepwear, burst onto the scene, hands on her head. "Oh my gods I heard Ruby screaming what happened why is she _fucking bleeding Uncle Qrow what the fuck happened-_ "

"Yang, hey! Yang! Back it down a little, we're getting there." He moved over on his knees so Yang could join him. "Talk to us, Ruby. What was that light?"

"It happened again," she muttered as they gingerly sat her upright. "Ow, my eyes!"

"Fuck!" Yang looked up as Blake and Weiss arrived – while they were dressed, the disheveled nature of their outfits and Weiss' missing jacket betrayed how rushed the process was.

"What happened?" Weiss asked as she moved closer. "Ruby?"

"The thing, the thing," she replied, rubbing at her face. Getting to her feet proved difficult, even with Yang and Qrow helping, but she managed to stand despite the visible wobble in her legs. "Oh gods, this one was so bad, they were everywhere," she gasped between breaths. "The grass even bent when they walked across it, I thought…" She grunted as Yang clamped on in a vicious hug.

Qrow stooped down in front of her. "You hallucinated?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry." The red streaming down her face became more translucent as tears mixed in with it. "I'm sorry…"

"Uh-uh. Nope. You have nothing to be sorry about." Yang easily lifted her sister in both arms and the whole group started for campus. "Come on. You'll be okay. Can you see?"

Ruby hid her face with a coat sleeve. "Kinda. It hurts."

She wasn't the only one in pain. Crouched behind a bush, well out of sight, a profusely-sweating Emerald struggled to catch her breath and tame a skull-shattering migraine. "Damn it," she mumbled, staring at her Scroll, "so close." The combination of her target being at the extreme range of her Semblance, plus the amount of Aura she'd used in the attempt – over half, according to the device – left her on her knees. "Oooooooo, my head..."

This whole thing felt like an incident she needed to pass on directly; she waited, both to give herself recovery time and a chance for everyone to leave and drag any attention away with them. Once she was able to stand, Emerald left her hiding spot and moved back into the campus, jogging through the dorm complex toward the administrative area. Many students had their heads poked out of windows above her, looking toward the airship pads as they tried to figure out what had happened. On the way, she tapped out an innocuous text, processed the reply, then moved toward one of the blue stone faculty dorms.

As she entered, Olivine arrived in the empty lobby and waved her up the steps she'd just come down. "What's the problem, Emmy?" she asked lowly.

Emerald's voice was almost a whisper. "Close call. Nearly got her off the edge of the cliff, but there was this weird flash of white light that broke my concentration. Some scruffy-looking guy with a red cape saved her. No idea where he came from, I didn't see him until after the light faded." She stopped when Olivine did. "Ma'am?"

Olivine leaned down to mutter. "Raven wasn't kidding about you, was she? You don't actually have to kill her yourself."

"I saw an opportunity. I just couldn't quite take advantage of it." She clutched at her head with both hands. "Aaaaaaagh. Ouch. Should I be worried about the flash thing?"

"Did it hurt you?"

"Don't think so. I just siphoned a lot of Aura into the illusion. I should be good."

"Then I wouldn't be concerned. Go get some rest. I'll handle it from here." While they walked out together, Olivine split off from Emerald immediately and moved toward the central tower. Her original target was Ozpin's office, but on the way she met Glynda coming down the stairs.

"What on Remnant was that light?" she asked, riding crop in hand and ready to battle. Some of the uniformed CCT staff were looking out the lobby windows behind her. "And who was running away from the airship pads? Was there an explosion?"

"No." Olivine looked back toward the courtyard – from here the pads were out of sight. "I spoke with someone who saw the whole thing. It was Ruby Rose."

"Come again?"

She whispered her next words. "There's some stuff about her you might not know. Come with me to the old man's office and we'll fill you in."

"What kind of _stuff_?" Glynda asked as she followed Olivine back up the stairs.

"The kind that makes her a danger to the rest of the campus," she replied, restraining a smile. "And I think we both agree that's something Beacon doesn't need right now."


	24. Into the Web

Yang stood guard at the foot of Ruby's bunk, where the girl herself, curled up in a trembling ball, had lain since being carried back to their room by her sister. She was in Weiss' bed; Weiss and Blake themselves were not present, however. She sneaked a glance back over her shoulder. "You awake?"

"Hrrrrm."

"Let me look at your eyes."

Ruby unfurled just enough to make that happen. The sclera were still stained with crimson, but her silver irises had regained much of their luster. She squinted adorably, a clear sign that her vision still wasn't back to normal.

Yang waved a hand in front of her pallid face. "Can you see me?"

"Still kinda fuzzy." Having exhausted her willpower, she curled back up. "I'm scared."

"I know." Yang returned to her post and crossed her arms. "Just hang tight for now, I guess."

"Hnnnnnnnh."

"Yeah. I don't know what's taking so long either. Maybe it's a good sign." Yang looked at her Scroll for the time. "Actually, maybe I should help you get dressed. They might go ahead and send you into Vale for a checkup." She continued to stare at the device, her stomach tying itself into knots. "Figured someone would have called by now, though…" Knocking at the door startled her so much she almost dropped it. Seeing who waited in the hallway scared her even more.

Glynda patiently waited for a stiff, wide-eyed Yang to move aside before trying to enter the room. "I apologize for the wait," she mumbled after getting inside. "I've been speaking to Professor Ozpin and Olivine Duprix. I wanted to deliver the decision myself." The absence of Blake and Weiss made her tilt her head. "Where are-?"

Ruby sat up, but stared into her lap instead of trying to meet Glynda's curious gaze. "Yang made them leave."

"Whatever for?"

She slumped over. "In case it happened to me again and I accidentally… um…"

"I see." Her next question went to Yang, though not in the form of words, but a quizzical expression instead.

"I don't care what happens to me," she replied with a shrug, "but if anyone else gets hurt..."

"Say no more." Glynda used her Semblance to move a chair over so she could sit near the ailing Ruby. "Ozpin isn't willing to wait for an examination." She glanced up when Yang turned on her, fists clenched, but her attention remained on the trembling girl in bed. "We have no idea what this second ability of yours is or does. You could – accidentally, of course – end up hurting other students. And even if that doesn't happen, he has concerns about you being armed. You've already pointed your weapon at someone."

"I-I didn't mean to…" she whispered, hugging her legs tightly.

"I know, but whatever is happening to you seems to have escalated incredibly fast. We may already be out of time."

"Wait, what?" Yang asked. Beads of sweat were already gathering on her forehead. "Does that mean…?"

Glynda's voice became as soft and sympathetic as they'd ever heard. "Ozpin and Duprix have recommended that she be separated from the general population."

The language struck her as euphemistic – and it caused her blood to boil. "Say what you actually mean, damn it!" she snapped, teeth bared.

"They wanna kick me out."

Every molecule of air left the room. No one, not even Glynda, could find the power to speak again for several moments; she finally had to break that silence herself. "For the record, I was against it. However, the fact that you misled us about what happened didn't help your cause – any of your causes, in fact. You are all in some amount of trouble. That said… I don't want to see any of you go. You're good students. You might be some of the best freshmen we've ever had." Her glasses came off so she could rub her eyes. "And you're good people too. If I could buy you time to figure things out, I would. The ultimate decision isn't up to me."

The lack of response from Ruby or Yang caused her to look up. Qrow was leaned up against the closed door, arms crossed and listening with a frown. "There's nothing we can do?" he asked.

"When did you get in here?"

"He's pretty sneaky like that," Ruby muttered through her knees. "I guess I should get packed."

"Not yet." Qrow stood up when someone pushed on the door – the second he moved, a worried Nora poked her head in. When she saw Glynda, she disappeared back out of sight. "I got a feeling this party is about to get bigger."

"Damn it," Yang threw her copious mane back over her shoulder, grumbling with defeat. "Is this what you feel like when I don't do what you ask?"

"Yes," Qrow and Ruby said in unison.

Seconds later, Pyrrha led them inside, with Blake and Weiss right behind her. They struggled to find some room to stand once Ren entered and shut the door; eventually, Ruby's team ended up around her bed, while Pyrrha chose to face Glynda head on with her own crew loosely gathered nearby. "I'm going to assume this isn't good news," the redhead muttered, noting the tall blonde's melancholic expression.

"Ozpin wants me to go," Ruby confirmed weakly, still hugging her knees.

"You're gonna make her leave without figuring out what's going on?" Nora asked, hands on her hips. "That's not right."

"I couldn't agree with you more, Miss Valkyrie, but our expulsion policy is roughly the same as Vale's. Actually… it's even more stringent. We are on our own up here, much more vulnerable to the Grimm than the city is. We experience a higher level of tension on a daily basis as it is, but since we've welcomed troops onto campus… suffice it say, the staff is asking questions and, thanks to Opher Riese, we have no answers to give. If that unease builds up so much that soldiers start getting killed, well, then we'd have to answer to the Queen." She stood up, finally slid her glasses back on, and threw up her hands in defeat. "We do _not_ want to answer to the Queen. I'm sorry. I don't think there's anything else I can do."

"You know Yang is going to go with her," Jaune pointed out.

Qrow paced around the room as best he could, hands shoved into his pants pockets. "Even if she didn't, she'd probably end up out there anyway 'cause of the bereavement protocol." He stopped to look at Glynda. "Ain't there _anything_ we could give him to delay this?"

"Hold on, what if she just goes home?" Yang shrugged when the attention fell on her. "Dad lives pretty far away from the port. I think she'd be okay there until she can see some kind of doctor."

"We tried that." Glynda stared out the window at the students walking by below. "The authorities weren't willing to allow her back on Patch without more details about the other ability."

"Then throw my name in the mix."

"Qrow, I mean this with all due respect, but if you still had that sort of pull with your family you wouldn't be in this profession," she replied, as gentle as they'd ever seen her. He said nothing in response, but the look on his face was so despondent that Yang moved over to give him a hug regardless.

"It doesn't hurt people, though." All eyes went right back to Nora, including Glynda's. "Remember the trial? Ruby was right next to all of us when it went off that first time. If it was gonna do damage, it would have then. I'm not even sure it did _anything_ to us."

"That's right!" Pyrrha said, clapping her hands once. "I recall being warm, but… in pain? No. Not at all."

"Not Ruby-related pain, anyway," Jaune noted unhappily.

"Are you certain about this?" Glynda rubbed her chin after their concerted nodding. "Hmm… that may help solve one problem, but Miss Rose—Ruby's illness is still the bigger concern."

Yang swallowed her terror and blurted out, "We just need some time! If she does something, then… then… I'll take the blame."

"No!" Ruby snapped back at her. "And you shouldn't come with me, either, dang it, think about dad! You're gonna be all he's got left!" She blinked when Weiss sat down on the edge of her bed, then cleared her throat. "Huh?"

"If Ruby is being made to leave, then I'm going with her."

While all of them were taken aback to some extent, Ruby's display was the most open; she slammed her hands onto the sides of her head and screamed " _Are you actually crazy_?!" at her teammate. "You can't say things like that, Weiss! You have to stay here! This has nothing to do with you!"

Weiss assumed a proper attitude, legs closed and hands in her lap, as she looked back. "You're my team leader. It has everything to do with you." Her next words were addressed to Glynda. "We're just asking for a chance. If Ozpin has a problem with that, he can exile me and explain to my family why."

Blake, sensing her plan, walked over and sat on Ruby's bed as well – together, they formed a barrier between their ailing leader and Glynda. "And he can do the same for me."

" _W_ _hat the heck are you doing no no no no stop_!" she gasped, grabbing both girls by the arm and trying to shake some sense back into them. "No! No way! No!"

"Live as a team, die as a team, I suppose," Weiss mumbled.

"No, fuck you, quit acting stupid," Yang countered unhappily, pointing at each girl in turn. "You're staying here if I have to knock you out."

"Ideally, we're all staying here." Pyrrha wandered over to stand next to Ruby and her protective wall, hands clasped behind her back. "Ruby and Yang were willing to die to help us and we hardly knew each other then. I can't stand by and do nothing when they're the ones in need. Ozpin can exile me too." She glanced over when Jaune, Nora, and Ren came over to stand by her side.

Yang's horror increased. "Are you all insane?!" she exclaimed, motioning wildly as she came around to face them. "What are you doing?"

"The right thing," Jaune replied. "I think, anyway."

"But…" She whirled on her boot heel a bit too late – they all saw the tears pouring down her cheeks.

While Glynda respected their show of solidarity, the truth dimmed her green eyes with well-worn sadness. "You can't resist him like this. He will exile all of you. Ozpin isn't known for bending the rules."

"Like Weiss said, we're not trying to fight him, we just want some kind of chance to figure this out," Pyrrha said quietly. "Can you convince him to give us any breathing room at all? Could we? I'll be happy to talk to him myself."

"If we knew more about Ruby's ability, that might be possible, but…" she trailed off when Pyrrha's face lit up with an idea. " _Do_ you know something?"

"I know _someone_."

"No!" Yang growled while turning to face them, red-eyed and sniffling. "I am done fucking talking to him."

"Then one of us will do it." Pyrrha looked back up at Glynda. "Twenty-four hours. I'll keep Ruby's weapon, and if the Grimm harass the patrols, send me out to help fight."

"Send _us_ out," Nora corrected her, arms crossed and wearing a rare frown. "Ren will calm her down himself if he's gotta, right?" That frown became a grin when he nodded. "There we go."

Their unity finally swayed her; hopeless as it seemed, Glynda found herself unable to deny their collective resolve. She glanced out the window and released a subtle sigh. "Act fast. I don't know how much time I'll be able to give you." With that, she strode to the door, but on the way out threw a smiling "And good luck," back at them before she closed the door.

All of them deflated with relief except a sobbing Ruby and Yang, whose anger bubbled right back to the surface. "You're all stupid," she grumbled through her tears. "What the hell are you thinking, seriously?"

"It's a calculated risk. The influence of our families combined might just be enough." Weiss stood up and brushed off her white dress. "If we give Ozpin pause, some time to think, I'm sure we can reach a good conclusion for everyone involved."

"I wouldn't bank on that, kid," Qrow advised on his way to Pyrrha. "Who were you talkin' about just now?"

"Ah, well, his name is Opher-"

"Oh, yeah. I met him once." Part of Qrow wondered if the threat of Ruby's imminent doom was punishment for his transgression of speaking to the lanky courier that night, but he set that question aside for later. "You think he knows something about the light, too?"

"He _claims_ he told us everything he knew," a grumpy Yang mumbled. "I don't think we could trust anything he said even if he did give us more. I'm done with him anyway. We're all in trouble for covering for his ass. Blake was right. We should have talked."

"Forget about it for now," Blake replied, her clingy leader hugging her from behind. "He might be the only chance Ruby has. We have to take it."

"She's got a point… and there's no time to play Scroll tag. You keep an eye on my girls. Make sure Ruby stays here. I'm gonna go handle this myself."

"Wait… you're going to Vale? Is it safe? I thought the teachers-"

He cracked a grin at Jaune. "I wouldn't be going if I wasn't good to go. Don't worry." After issuing hugs to his nieces, Qrow departed their dorm room on urgent steps and dashed down the hallway. A pair of unpleasant thoughts plagued him all the way out of the building. _No wonder Oz and the ladies wanted to keep_ _it_ _quiet._ He scowled; if this was what pushed Ruby over the edge – in more ways than one – there would be hell to pay at some point.

Even if someone else had to collect that debt, since the other worry was somewhat more personal: _What are the chances he just kills me on sight?_

Those odds were certainly higher than zero. Once outside, he searched for a good takeoff spot – this meant avoiding the wide-open courtyard and airship pads, as there was too much of a chance someone would see him transform. Instead, he headed for the south part of campus at a speed just slow enough to avoid attracting attention, but fast enough to make the trip quick. Once he reached the warehouse near the south gate, he ducked around the corner, pressed himself up against the wall, and folded his body into its crow form. After a few hops to get his bird legs under him, he spread his wings and bolted for Vale, traveling as fast as his magic would allow.

* * *

Droplets of crystal clear fluid hung in orbit around a bewildered Winter as she followed Opher around Schwarze's apartment – spheres which flew away when he needed them to rain down into one of the pots which constituted Schwarze's artificial interior jungle. They were replaced by more flicked idly from his hand as fast as he used them up. "And you're using this power to water plants," she eventually remarked, hands on her hips.

"To be fair, if she didn't have so damn many I'd just use a pitcher," he said idly. That wasn't the whole reason. A display this quiet likely wouldn't pique the sisters' interest unless they were actually in the city – almost right on top of him, in fact – and whether or not they chose to engage him because of it would provide a clue about how rogue they really were. It was effectively a little test. "Also, what's wrong with watering plants? Have you ever met a farmer?"

Her nostrils flared with a displeased sigh. "You know what I meant." That grumpiness fled in favor of a grave stare at his back. "Not a word from the police or the military?"

"Nope." Opher twirled on his sneakers, bringing magical hydration to one of Schwarze's prized ferns that hung near the glass doorway which led to the unit's balcony. "I don't think they know what to do with me – and that is completely fine."

"No it isn't. So long as the Army is holding a potential interview over your head, you can't easily travel to Atlas." She met his gaze head-on when he turned to look. "What?"

"I wasn't going anyway."

Another nostril-flaring sigh. "At some point you're going to have to realize the picture is bigger than those two." His expression changed – now he was looking at her like she was stupid, so her face creased with disdain to match. "Don't look at me like that, you know I'm right."

"It's less about the size of the picture," he said quietly while watering a geranium, "and more about what I might do if something happens to them. I killed a whole disaster out of sheer curiosity the other night. Now imagine me when I'm _upset_."

A silent Winter glanced away, then clasped her hands behind her back as she regained her usual stately posture. "Point taken, but mine still stands too. I understand that you care about-" She went quiet when Opher's head snapped toward the windows. "What?"

It was the faint, airborne ping of magic – someone _had_ taken his bait. "Someone's coming. I think it's a Branwen," he warned her, recalling all of the true art's rain into his flesh. He glanced back as she produced a pistol from a thigh holster hidden underneath her black skirt. "That isn't gonna help you if it's her, but if it's him… you probably won't need it." A black crow flashed past the balcony outside. "Get out of here or out of sight, up to you."

"I'm staying. I want to hear this. Just try not to start a fight." Winter looked for an appropriate spot to disappear. Fortunately, Schwarze owned a big, leafy taro plant in a huge decorative pot that occupied the corner opposite her windows; its plentiful green fronds would easily hide her. She ducked behind it as Opher went outside onto the balcony for a look around.

The bird came back and alighted on the steel railing next to his hand. "I know it's one of you," he said. "Go inside and show yourself."

Qrow obeyed, shedding his crow body in exchange for the human one as he passed the threshold into Schwarze's living room. "Damn, you've got a lot of houseplants," he remarked while glancing around.

"If you're planning to attack me again, you'll make great fertilizer." Opher closed the door behind him, his sight never leaving the old Huntsman.

"I ain't here to fight. Had my fill of that already. Actually, I'm hoping we might put our, uh, differences aside so you can help me with something." He raised a hand when Opher started laughing at him. "Now wait a damn minute-"

"You want _my_ help? After you and your sister tried to kill me? That's a level of desperation I didn't think was possible, holy shit." Qrow's surprise caused a little smirk. "It's funny what you can learn with a little investigating. Raven gets around pretty good for a _corpse_." He turned his back on the old Huntsman and folded his arms. "I'd love to know how she attained that power, by the way. Let me guess: does it have something to do with the reason her family would rather list her as dead instead of exiled?"

"We don't— _they_ don't have time for this," Qrow replied, teeth bared as he stood his ground. "The kids are in trouble. Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, all of 'em. The administration is already mad because they kept your role in the trial quiet – like you asked. Part of this is on you. No, wait… I got a feeling _most_ of it is on you."

Opher squinted back at him – the redhead's name caught his attention more than Ruby's did, but it was the placement of blame which confused him most. "Excuse me?"

Anger helped him grow bold, even if his instinct warned against a heated argument with the guy that made a mockery of his dangerous sister. "You hid the truth about remote priming. You never told those kids what it could do to them. Now Ruby's mind isn't right! She's seeing things!" he growled, moving to stand nose-to-nose with Opher. "They're gonna exile her. And Yang, and Weiss and Blake, and Pyrrha Nikos and her whole damn team too!" Qrow expected wrathful denial in return, but got soft, silent confusion instead – an outcome which formed a pit in his stomach. "Don't you get it? They're all gonna sink together 'cause you didn't give them the whole story!"

" _What_ truth about remote priming?" he asked at length.

"That…" He hesitated, unsure whether Opher was genuinely perplexed about the subject or preparing to lie again. "That it damages their Auras like Grimm exposure does, obviously."

"It doesn't."

"Oh yeah?" Qrow took a few wary steps back from his would-be adversary. "Sounds like you know you've doomed these kids and you don't-" The anger he expected finally materialized as Opher seized him by the throat and lifted him right off the ground. "Oh," he choked out, both hands around the arm suspending him, "must've hit a nerve."

"I want to know where they heard this shit." No immediate response caused his grasp to tighten. " _Now_!"

Qrow held his nerve until the corners of his eyes began to dim. "The Army told them!" he coughed.

"Give me a _name_!"

"I don't-" He could resist no longer and flickered into his avian form for a moment to escape. "I don't know!" he said between gasps. "I just know they went to GHQ... the other morning and heard it… from whoever they saw there."

Opher stared at the hunched-over Qrow, face shadowed by anger. "I still have no clue why I shouldn't just turn you into a bloody smear on the floor, much less help you with anything. Your sister threatened to kill my friends too, if you recall. You'd be lucky if I _only_ told you to pound sand."

"I know that, but I swear, it ain't about us," he replied, still rubbing the pain out of his bruised neck. "It's about a man from Patch, who has nothing to do with this – he just loves his daughters more than anything on Remnant. It's about those daughters. It's about their friends and _those_ families. Look… maybe it's hard to understand if you don't have kids, but-"

"I did once." The old bastard was right; he could no longer maintain his choler and turned away to hide what replaced it: pain. "Even if I said yes, what is it you want me to do?"

"I dunno. The way you handled being abducted, I'm sure you'll think of somethin'." The dizziness eased enough for him to stand up straight once more. "I can't do anything for them but this. My sister wouldn't do anything even if she could. But you? You already have. You could have let them die in that clearing. You didn't. They need that kinda help one more time."

Opher wiped his eyes with a long sleeve and sighed. "Remote priming doesn't hurt people. She never would have taught us how to do it if it did."

"I believe you. What about Ruby's magic? Is it possible that-"

He looked back over his shoulder. "Absolutely fucking not."

Qrow felt safe enough to walk back into conversational range. "Are you sure? I've never felt any like it before."

"Does the sun rise in the west? I'm sure." He motioned out at the Valesian skyline, bathed in the noon sun. "I can't fly to Beacon manually in broad daylight. Can your magic change me too?"

He shook his head. "No. Only works on me. I sure can't carry your ass as a crow either."

"I'll have to figure something out, then. Can you stall them for that long?"

"Just watch me. I'll try to make the kids stay in Ruby's room in Dormitory 3. Meet 'em there. If they're still there." He held out his right hand for a shake, which Opher reciprocated only after some time. "And thank you."

"I haven't done anything yet," he replied. "By the way, if I pull this off, you owe me _so_ hard."

"I meant thanks for not killing me, and… well, how about I buy you a drink later?" One snarky grin later and Qrow was on his way, fluttering out as a crow the moment he got the balcony door open.

Opher tracked his departure via magical radar as he retreated to the east – and as Winter emerged from her leafy shelter, rubbing her face in disbelief. Her Scroll was in her other hand. "When were you going to tell me that the true art lets you turn into animals? Is that something _you_ can do? Gods… now every bird could be a spy."

"No, I can't do it – and given the current state of the art, I wouldn't worry too much about flocks of spies." His green eyes narrowed to slits. "I'd hoped her teachings just got lost, somehow, but apparently they spread far enough to be actively suppressed. I really don't like where this is going."

"Yes, I think we both want to know what Qrow knows. Just one more reason to help him besides the obvious." Winter tapped at the device for a moment. " _Is_ there something we need to know about remote priming? Any ill effects? Now would be the time to tell me."

"Absolutely not. Carmine knew how to do it long before she taught me, and that was years ago. I never heard her complain about using it." He ducked his head to hide his sadness with the wide brim of his hat. "She loved everyone she met. There's no way she'd teach something that would cause harm. I wish I knew what happened to her… why she never got the chance to help Remnant at large."

"Perhaps that task now falls to us."

When his gaze met hers, there was just a little more sparkle in those dull green irises than normal. "I need some way to reach Beacon."

She waved her Scroll at him with a smile, then went back to tapping furiously on its screen. "What do you think I've been doing?"

"You work fast when your sister is in trouble," he quipped as he wandered over to observe her in action. "What's your plan, exactly? Gonna use the Schnee family airship to carry me out there?"

"You think we only have one? How cute." Her fingers darted across the screen, swiping and tapping so fast he couldn't keep up. "My superiors have staged a few… we'll call them assets, to assist in my mission. Assets which they authorized because you're giving us useful information. The more forthright you are, the more we can help each other."

"Huh. Do I get to make actual requests, then?"

She gave him a little side-eye. "If you don't ask for the Moon."

He let out a little snort. "I'm desperate for some gravity Dust, but it's all so damn expensive. It sure would help me do a little _investigating_. Maybe your boys can use some of whatever I find."

"That can be arranged." Winter finally completed her work and put her Scroll away. "There we are. It's amazing what you can do when you shift a few freight manifests around."

"I'm a courier again, aren't I?" he asked as they walked toward the door.

"Technically, you're part of the cargo." She stopped before entering the hallway and looked back at him. "I'd like to know what sort of plan you have in mind. You don't exactly carry the authority to overturn a potential exile order and you certainly can't _fight_ the Headmaster of an Academy."

"There's no need to fight. I know more than one way to back someone into a corner," he said, unable to suppress a smile.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember what you told me the first time we met? About what your goal is?"

Winter needed an instant to hunt down those four words before her eyes lit up. "Yes. What about it?"

Opher's grin increased. "Wouldn't it be interesting to have a real-world test case?"

* * *

Ruby sat on the oaken bookshelf, her back to the window, cross-legged and trembling as her brain creaked under the weight of… everything. Next to her left knee was a black, leather-bound book with a highly-stylized gold X on the cover – a copy of the same scripture from which Opher quoted to Winter.

_If I go, and Yang goes, then dad… and Uncle Qrow..._

The doom of four people centered on her, but she was too frazzled to dispassionately blame whatever addled her racing mind. "It's my fault," left her lips and entered the empty room. "It's my fault..."

Yang, Weiss, and Blake were gone. Pyrrha and her team were also gone – save one. Ren emerged from the bathroom, waving his hands to dry them off as he returned to his original spot: seated next to Ruby on the wooden bookcase. His posture was that of meditation – legs crossed snugly in the lotus pose, spine straight, and hands lightly resting upon his knees. He looked upon Ruby with a ghostly frown. She was so _tense_. "Ruby." Even the way she directed attention toward him was fearful. "Just be."

"Be… what?" she asked, her tear-streaked face askew with confusion.

"Just be."

She grabbed and hugged her knees in search of comfort that was as far out of reach as the sun above. "I don't think I understand..."

"Copy me, if you can."

"Uhhhhhh…" Ruby, slowed by deep reluctance, eventually released her knees and tried to arrange herself as he did – though her legs weren't quite as cooperative thanks to the amount of time she'd spent either hugging them or being crammed into the fetal position. Her breaths would not slow to his pace, no matter how many seconds passed. "I know you're trying to calm me down and everything and I really do appreciate it but this isn't going to help-"

"Ruby."

Despite his volume never eclipsing a mumble, she felt compelled to stop and heed him anyway. "-ehhhhhhh. I should be quiet."

"Not at all. Speak your mind."

" _I'm too scared to think_."

"I've been there." Ren turned his eyes toward the door in response to some perceived motion, but he saw nothing amiss and looked away.

"What? I don't think I've ever seen you be afraid of… like… anything." Ruby could no longer be still and slid off the bookcase to pace around. When she looked back at him, a gentle urging smile was her reward. "If I go… Yang goes. If Yang goes, like, dad already lost mom and he's gonna be next. Then Uncle Qrow…" She clutched at her messy hair. No, it was worse than that now: Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, and Ren were on that list too. _Ten people_ , six of whom she was damn sure had nothing, or should have had nothing, to do with her plight besides simply being present to witness it. A sudden headache caused her to grimace. "I know what Pyrrha said, but… why? Why are you guys trying to negotiate for me?"

"Why did you risk your life for us?"

Ruby snapped up straight and stared at him for a long, quiet moment. "I had to. I made a promise to help."

His smile grew just a little. "Not all promises are spoken."

She emitted a long, warbling groan and moved back to the bookshelf. "Oh gods I need air. More air," she complained while opening the window. As the cool breeze flooded the room, it brought with it noises which, at first, she couldn't identify. She stuck her head out to listen. "Do you hear that?"

The awful, piercing crack of some kind of gun reached their ears, echoed over a great distance. Then it came again, bracketed by the groaning roar of Grimm. Ren noted the stress returning to Ruby's posture and lost his smile. "Perhaps we should…"

"Hide me!" she hissed at him, convinced it was her doing. "Ren! Hide me!"

After a brief hesitation, he obliged, placing his hand on her shoulder and activating his Semblance. The color left her face, her skin, even her eyes and clothes – this grayscale Ruby strained to listen to the results, eyes wide with terror. Unfortunately, it seemed to have no effect – the report of that loud weapon repeated several times, interspersed by the howls of unseen beasts. He released his hold, allowing her color to return, just as Nora poked her head around the door.

"Hey, how's it-" she asked, cut off by Ruby's bulged-eyes terror. "-never mind." A few skipped steps got her to the open window. "What's going on?"

"It's me!" Ruby insisted, hunched over and hugging herself. "Oh gods where's Yang." She darted away to yell out the door for her sister. "Yang! Yaaaaang! Come knock me out!"

Nora easily pulled her back with one hand on her arm. "Ruby, no, it's not you. Remember all that stuff Glynda said?"

"I'm still part of it!"

The door flew open; Yang arrived, panting for air, with the whole horde of their friends in her wake. "Ruby!" When she saw the open window, her first instinct was to run over and close it. "No. Don't listen to that, you've got enough on your mind." Her next act was to grab her sister in a hug that lifted her feet right off the floor.

"At least let me go fight!" she yelled into Yang's chest, legs swinging furiously. "It's my fault! You're all going to die and it's _my fau_ _lt_!" Even augmented by emotional turmoil, she lacked the strength to break her sister's powerful clutches. "Let me go! Let me _go_! _Let me-_ "

Yang adjusted her right hand and balled it up into a fist, then roughly tapped the back of Ruby's head at the base of her neck. Silence followed the subtle metallic _clank_ as she went completely limp in Yang's arms. The blonde regarded their horrified stares with a stony face.

"Was that really necessary?!" Pyrrha blurted out first, hands on her head.

"She did kind of ask for it," Nora pointed out with a shrug.

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't need to." She put Ruby to bed, using Blake's bunk this time, then spent several moments carefully arranging her and covering her up. Their stares bored holes into her back, but she paid them no mind until satisfied with her work.

Weiss was the next to comment. "You shouldn't have…" she breathed through her fingers. "Yang… no."

She pushed through their number to sit on the opposite bed. "We can't catch her if she dashes outta here." At last she returned their gazes. "Not easily, anyway. She'll be fine."

"Isn't knocking her out still a bit too much?"

Yang cast one more glance at Weiss before burying her face in her hands. "Dad used to do the same thing to mom."

"Excuse me, he _what_ now?" Jaune exclaimed.

"Calm down, it was her idea. I'm not saying it was a regular thing, but sometimes… look, _someone_ needed to stop mom. She didn't know when to quit." A long look went toward Ruby from between her shaky fingers. "I'm not gonna let her run herself into the same position. I can't."

"Gods…" Nora mumbled, rubbing at her hair. She sat on the bookshelf and copied Ren's pose in search of some desperately-needed serenity.

"It'll be fine." Blake smiled back at their unsure looks. "There's absolutely no way Professor Ozpin is going to exile us just because we're concerned about Ruby."

"Surely not," Weiss agreed at length with a nod. "It wouldn't happen in Atlas. I'm certain it wouldn't happen here, either."

"Yes." Pyrrha steadied herself with a deep breath – Jaune's hand on her shoulder helped bolster that calm. "All we need to do is stand up and be reasonable. Given all we've offered, I don't see why-"

"You guys are morons."

All three girls looked toward Yang, but only Weiss spoke up. "What are you talking about?"

"Our rules are blind," she noted tonelessly. "Names mean nothing. Wealth means nothing. That's the whole damn point." She revealed her face once more, lilac eyes as hard as iron for an instant before her expression mellowed with regret. "I'm sorry. I know you mean well, and I'm grateful. I really am. But we don't have ice and tundras and oceans on all sides like you guys do at home. Vale is a sitting duck on a wide-open plain. The rules _have_ to be tougher here."

"Even so, there's no way Ozpin would…" The hopeless expression on Yang's face ripped the breath from Blake's lungs. "There's… he wouldn't. He _wouldn't_."

"Don't… don't bet your life on it."

Horror sank into the marrow of her bones; Blake turned her back on them and shuffled into the nearest corner to wrangle with that fear in silence. "But I thought… I…" She looked up when Weiss arrived to check on her. "I can't get exiled, I'm the heir to the…"

"It won't come to that," she whispered.

She allowed Weiss to take her by the wrist and bring her back to the party. The frigid, uncomfortable silence lasted several minutes; chiming from a pouch on Yang's belt was the sound that finally ended it. Once she read the message on her Scroll, she stood up, re-energized, and moved back to the window. "He's back," she told them. Sure enough, after a moment she saw him coming from the courtyard on rapid steps, threading his way through loose clumps of nervous kids listening to the echoes of war. "There he is!" Nora and Ren opened them for her so she could yell down. "Yo!"

"Hey, kid, I'm coming up," he shouted back once he got close enough. "I'm not gonna stay long, though, I need to find Ozpin."

"Please tell me you have some good news," Nora called.

"Just might. I'll explain in a minute."

He disappeared out of sight on his way to the entrance and, true to his word, arrived in short order at their open door, sweaty and gasping for breath. He glanced at the slumbering Ruby. "Thank the gods she's asleep."

"I had to clonk her."

Yang got an understanding look as the old Huntsman closed the door, then moved to close the windows again and silence the continuing fight outside. "Was she about to pull a Summer?" he asked. "And what the hell is going on outside?"

"Yeah. I think the Army's fighting the Grimm aaaand Ruby wanted to go help." She shrugged weakly. "How'd it go? Did you find the asshole, or what?"

"I did." Qrow mopped his brow and collected his thoughts. "We had a… spirited discussion, but he insists the priming thing ain't responsible for this. He says the light she creates wouldn't do it either. Take both as you will, I guess."

"So it's his word against the military's?" a shaky Nora asked as she left her bookshelf seat with Ren in tow to walk over.

"That's useless!" Yang growled. "He's just calling the Army liars now? Like anyone would believe him over the fucking military."

"If all goes well, it won't only be his word."

"He's coming here?" Jaune crossed his arms. "What good is that gonna do? If Miss Goodwitch couldn't convince Ozpin, there's no way he could."

The redhead was a little more receptive to the idea – but only a little. "Unless he tells them everything… about everything," she said, green eyes lidded.

"Oh, yeah, 'cause he has a great track record of that shit, doesn't he." Yang could sit no longer; she got up and checked on Ruby again, lightly placing her hand on the girl's forehead. "It's over. We're completely screwed."

"I don't feel like givin' up yet." Qrow made for the door once more. "Hang tight, I'm gonna go stall Oz-" he said while swinging it open… to reveal Ozpin himself, cane in one hand and Scroll in the other. The Headmaster wasn't alone either; an exhausted Schwarze, still in uniform, was at his side with two gloss black, long-barreled submachine guns on her hips. She squirmed in her combat boots.

"I believe we have wasted enough time on this matter, Professor Branwen," he said on his way into the room.

Everyone backed away from him except Yang, who put herself between Ozpin and her unconscious sister. "Sir, please…"

He looked at Pyrrha, Weiss, and Blake instead. "Glynda relayed your offer and your ultimatum to me before she left to reinforce the soldiers trying to keep us alive. I have rejected both. Under the powers granted to me by Article One, Section A, I hereby eject Ruby Rose from this campus."

"She's not even conscious, you asshole!"

Qrow's outburst only earned a brief glance. "Miss Xiao Long, you are not required to join your sister, but…"

"I'll get packed." Yang swallowed her terror, then moved to the closet immediately and pulled out her suitcase. "What happens to our dad?"

"That decision lies with Patch." Ozpin's gaze fell upon the rest of the horrified students. "I ignored your failure to report Opher Riese's interference in the second trial. I clearly made a mistake." A tap on his Scroll caused the Army's local communications traffic to spill from its speakers.

Cinzia Vespa was the person they heard best through a catastrophe of screaming and gunfire. " _Sir! Sir, we need air support!_ " she pleaded with someone they couldn't hear. " _We don't_ _have the firepower to hold the west gate!"_ The ear-splitting crack of some incredible rifle followed her words. " _Fall back! Find Goodwitch!_ "

Ozpin allowed them to listen to the running battle until Schwarze, too agitated to stand still, glanced over and asked, "Sir, is this really necessary? I'd rather be out there helping-"

"You are helping," he assured her with an amiable smile that vanished when he looked back at the students. "I want them to hear the consequences of their actions. Had you reported his interference as required, he would have been dealt with and the incident would not have taken place. There would not be soldiers on our campus, nor people asking _why_." The shattering report of Indigo's gun came and went again. "There are already casualties, so I will show you the mercy Her Majesty shall not. I hereby eject you all under Article Three, Section F. Sergeant Voss, you are to ensure they leave campus at once – by whatever means you deem necessary."

"In the middle of an attack?!" she countered. A suddenly-wobbly Blake stumbled for a moment, then fainted dead away; Yang was the first to reach her fallen teammate. Jaune looked ready to drop himself – all the color drained from his face. "Oh my goodness!"

"You can't make us go back!" Nora screamed at him, clutching a startled Ren in her mighty arms. "We didn't do anything!"

Weiss, numbed by disbelief, approached him with a polite smile. "There must be some sort of mistake," she said. Ozpin only gazed at her. "Surely you…" The longer he remained silent, the more infuriated she became. "For _one_ incident?!" she snapped, motioning firmly. "One? Are you insane? You cannot do this!" More silence. "Gods damn it, I'm a Schnee!" she screeched.

"I tried to warn you," Yang mumbled, gently shaking Blake in order to wake her up. She glanced up when Qrow knelt down next to her.

"Sir!" Pyrrha gasped desperately. "You… you can't do this! Ruby just needs help! Please!"

"I can, and I have. Perhaps you might draw the Grimm away from people that are actually worth saving." As Ozpin turned to leave, however, the soundtrack of war from his Scroll suddenly dulled to silence – without his killing the audio feed. "Lieutenant Vespa? This is Ozpin. Why did your channel go quiet?"

At first, a cacophony of static and shouting was his reply – confused shouting, not panic. Vespa's nasally reply arrived seconds later. "Ah, sir? West gate is secure—hold on. Uh… what? What do you mean the Grimm are gone from the whole perimeter, that's impossible!"

Ozpin cut in the second he found a chance. "Is Glynda with you?"

"No sir, but, uh… we did make a friend!"

" _What_ friend?" The connection went dead. Qrow rose to his feet, grinning to himself. "Why are you smiling?"

"You just got here Oz, stay a spell," the old Huntsman said through that smirk. "I know you hate making decisions without all the info."

That got Ozpin to turn and face him. "What are you talking about?" He looked over as a wide-eyed Pyrrha moved to the window, flung it open, and looked down. The sounds of battle were gone, replaced by the mild uncertainty of a few kids wandering between their classes and some birds singing in the golden-leafed trees along the walkway. He moved over to gaze out the window himself, but he saw nothing of note and turned away shortly after to stare at the kids. "You have one hour to pack your belongings and vacate your rooms. That is all."

An obstacle appeared just as he reached the doorway – a remarkably Opher-shaped impediment which drove him slowly back into the room until they occupied the center of it. Erstwhile courier and stoic Headmaster became locked in a staring contest so intense that almost everyone backed away from _both_ men, leaving them loosely arranged near the walls. One curt snap of his left wrist slammed the door shut with wind Dust. "Hi, I'd like to report an attempted kidnapping," he said to the old man.

Schwarze was the only one unaware of the tension between them. "Cutie!" she said, arms raised happily above her head, though she resisted the urge to hug her greeting. Her expression suddenly became quizzical. "...cutie? What are you doing here?"

"I'm killing some time between jobs. Thought I'd say hello while I had a minute – didn't think I'd run into you or the old man, though." He glanced over at Ruby, then at Blake as she began to stir, and finally over to Qrow before his attention went back to Schwarze. "Your soldier friends are fine... at least the one we care about is. They're coming back with Goodwitch, I think."

"You son of a bitch," Yang growled at him. "I _will_ kill you."

"Easy, Yang," her uncle chided gently.

He stared into those fiery purple eyes, only to realize she wasn't the sole source of ire in the room. Schwarze's face alone was halfway friendly – even Pyrrha regarded him with caution. "Nice to see you too. I assume I missed something?"

"I suggest you wait your turn to be dealt with," Ozpin interceded first, "unless you'd like to be exiled now. It would save us all some time."

"I think I'm more afraid of her," he said, motioning toward the angry blonde. "Well? I'd like to get a slightly better idea of what I walked into."

A seething Nora provided a summary. "Ruby just got booted because she keeps seeing things and the rest of us just got booted because everyone's super-tense about the Army being here and asking questions, 'cause you didn't say anything about the kidnapping or whatever? And… if we had reported you like we should have that one time you saved our butts, then maybe that wouldn't be going on right now."

He gazed at her until she stopped speaking, emitted a quiet snort, then walked around Ozpin toward the open window. "I'll take some of the hit on that one – but I won't be thrown under the airship for the rest of it," he stated directly to Ozpin. "By you or anybody else."

Schwarze waved her hands, smiling anxiously. "Aaahh—um, Opher? What's going on here?"

"Let's find out together." One deep breath entered and left through his nostrils before he alighted on the bookshelf. As before, his Aura shrieked a silent warning in Ozpin's presence, but this time he felt slightly more in control of its impulses. "You want to know what happened to me that day? All right. I left your tower to finish up distributing the shipment. This lady comes and asks me for help with some outgoing cargo. We go to the warehouse at the south gate, she opens the shutter, and the second it closes I get jumped in the dark. The funny thing? This person wasn't on your staff even though she told me she was. Don't the gates scan for IDs? If she doesn't work here… then how'd she get in?"

"It ain't just the gates," Qrow noted, "it's the walls, too. The tops have sensors. Any invalid ID or lack of ID altogether sets off alarms in Beacon Tower."

Meanwhile, Ozpin, stone-faced and absolutely still, said nothing.

"How odd," Opher commented while getting comfortable, eyes glued to the old man.

The students glanced between both men, then among each other with murmurs of confusion – or dizziness in Blake's case, as she struggled to keep her feet under her even with Yang's help. "Someone could have forged an ID?" Schwarze offered as she bounced anxiously on her feet. "It's…" She hesitated, staring at him with a slightly screwed-up expression. "...not unheard of."

"With a matching entry in Beacon's database? Unless it uses the same one as Vale's." He looked to Qrow for guidance.

"Nah, we've got our own 'cause a lot of the staff can't enter Vale," was the answer, dispensed after the old Huntsman took a drink from his steel flask. "And ours is a lot smaller. Much harder to hide a false entry."

Proceedings were derailed a bit as Ruby tossed and turned back into consciousness. She sat up, noticed Ozpin, tried – and failed – to scream, saw Yang and her suitcase, then broke into fits of weak sobbing as she put two and two together. She only noticed Opher's presence because Schwarze wouldn't stop looking at him. "Wh—what's going on? Are we gone?"

Ozpin's voice became almost sympathetic. "Yes, Miss Rose, I'm afraid-"

"They don't look very _gone_ to me. Besides, I want them to stay and hear the rest of our little chat."

With that, the Headmaster's patience was exhausted. "Sergeant Voss, this man is no longer welcome on my campus. Please escort him to the airship pads, then return here to see off our former students."

"Very well, sir," she replied with a light frown. "Let's go for a walk!"

"No."

Now the staring match had _three_ participants. Schwarze cocked her head. "Cutie, you heard him. You have to leave now."

"Why?" Opher asked as he got more comfortable on the bookshelf, smiling at Ozpin all the while. "Because he can't push me around like he can push these kids around? I'm beginning to wonder if we're all scapegoats. Distractions from the fact that your campus security is so full of fucking holes that you needed the Valesian Army to come patch them."

The grip on his cane became tighter. "Beacon's affairs are none of your concern. I will not warn you again. Leave."

"They became my concern the moment Indigo and this dope were deployed here." He glanced over as Schwarze unlatched the leather straps securing her guns in their holsters, but moved nary an inch.

"Let's not do anything rash," Pyrrha said, one hand raised toward each side of the conflict. "Everyone just calm down."

Schwarze continued to draw closer, hands now rested on her weaponry. "Bitte lass mich dich nicht vor diesen kindern erschießen," she begged him quietly. "Ich verstehe nicht, was passiert, aber ich kann ihm nicht ungehorsam sein."

Atlas' mother tongue spilled forth without him missing a beat. "Mach dir keine sorgen," he assured her lowly. "Niemand wird dich so oder so beschuldigen können." A wink followed.

Weiss alone understood their chat – although Schwarze's terrified posture set many of their nerves on edge, especially Ruby. Out of sheer instinct, Qrow pulled her from the bed and shielded her with his body, along with Yang, just in case. "Versuchen sie den einfachen ausweg zu finden?" the heiress asked him.

That tugged a smirk across his lips. "Do I look suicidal to you?" Figuring the point was now well and truly made – and not wanting to perform another _demonstration_ in front of the teenagers – Opher disarmed Schwarze with a few bored flicks of his wrist and the whispers of gravity magic they commanded. He moved her hands aside, then extracted the guns from their holsters and let them rest securely in his lap. "Oh no, she's unarmed and can't possibly follow her orders without the risk of serious injury. Whatever shall she do?"

"G-give those back!" she squeaked, flailing adorably. "I'm going to get in trouble if I don't do what he says!"

"Sergeant… it's all right." Ozpin calmed her with a hand on the shoulder. "Please wait outside."

"I'm keeping these, by the way."

"Hey! You can't have my guns!"

"Why not, you've given me everything else." He relinquished the weapons after she whined once more. "Oh gods, don't make that face at me. Fine. Take 'em." Once Schwarze was out of the way, he regarded the nervous Ruby with a blank face – her bloody eyes caused him to squint with thought. "I don't know what's happening to her, but I know what isn't. I didn't show them anything dangerous."

"And why should I take anything you say at face value? Or assign it _any_ value at all?"

Ozpin got a considerably chillier stare. "Because I stopped a Grimm attack in forty-five seconds that Indigo and her soldier friends had apparently been struggling with for half an hour – maybe I know what the hell I'm talking about. And I spent most of that time making fun of how tiny she is compared to that gun of hers." He finally stood up and stretched his arms. "If someone wasn't sneaking around on campus that day… then I saw something too, which is really curious considering it hasn't happened before or since. One person hallucinating is one thing, but two..."

"Then she was right!" Yang growled at him. "It _does_ affect your Aura! You asshole!"

"There's one way to be certain," he replied, arms crossed and smiling. "Let everyone stay here and we'll sort this out. Together."

Ozpin openly scoffed at him. "So they can can continue to attract Grimm and put Her Majesty's troops in danger? What kind of fool do you take me for?"

"...what Grimm?" he countered, pointing toward the open window and the peaceful sights and sounds beyond. " _Everyone_ includes me. I clearly can't trust your walls to keep Indigo and Schwarze safe – so I'll do it. By my own damn self if I must. I'm staying here on campus." Silent disbelief caused him to look around. "You've all seen me fight." He waved at Qrow. "And this guy knows exactly what I'm capable of. So does Ozpin. He's got _video_."

"What?" Ruby, clamped to Qrow's side under the safety of his old red cloak, looked up at him. "What's he talking about?"

"I ran into him and his lady friend on their way out of the forest after the airship crash," he replied, thinking fast. "Oz, he's right. We sure could use his help."

"Assuming this is all about the Grimm, I don't see how you can turn me down." Opher tried to stand eye-to-eye with Ozpin – it didn't quite work out, thanks to the Headmaster's abnormal height. "And if it isn't, then they have a right to know the truth. Ruby is someone you'd want on campus for that kind of emergency anyway. I wouldn't have been able to save them without her. Not all of them."

"Y-you… wh-what?" she stammered quietly. "Are you serious?"

"And we're pretty sure she can't hurt anyone with it," Jaune added quickly. "I dunno if Glynda told you, but-"

"Yes, Mister Arc, she did. Vehemently." While it complicated one problem, he balanced that against the fact that it would be much easier to keep tabs on the bigger issue – and help Salem's Maidens remain a little safer – if Opher happened to be right under his nose. It would certainly make some things easier logistically, too. All things considered, it was nice to have a halfway decent opponent again – Ozpin couldn't help but admire his resolve at gunpoint, even if the literal scenario had been avoided. "Perhaps I acted too hastily, but, to be honest... I have no desire to attract the Queen's wrath, either. Every soldier we lose here means Vale's defense is weakened – she takes those losses extremely personally," he said, the iron gone from his tone. "What exactly are you offering?"

"A world without Grimm. Well… a Beacon without Grimm, anyway." Opher waved around at the students. "No need to exile anybody if there aren't any monsters to fight. Besides, once we figure out what happened, maybe you won't need the Army and my friends can go home. Everyone ends up happy."

"That's impossible," Pyrrha breathed. "One person can't keep the whole campus safe from the Grimm."

"It won't just be one." Ozpin glanced once more at the three girls who so clumsily tried to wield their families' influence. "You may all remain here – with certain conditions."

"Name 'em. I will do literally _anything_ ," Yang assured him, her hands clasped.

"First, Ruby Rose is to be unarmed while within Beacon's walls." He found some hidden amusement in her uncomfortable frown. "Second, you will be partially responsible for maintaining the safety you very nearly compromised. Starting from tomorrow night, your teams will be tasked with the overnight patrol."

After they exchanged looks, Nora shrugged and said, "That's not too bad, I guess."

Blake – who had finally remembered how to breathe again – grabbed the nearest bedpost to hold herself up. "We're… we're all good, then?"

"Don't get too comfortable. I reserve the right to have you all removed if… _when_ this fails. And I do mean all of you," he said, looking directly at Opher. "Unless you die in the field. At least then I can tell your families that you fell as heroes." After one last short-lived staring contest – plus an incredibly pointed look at Qrow – Ozpin took his leave.

Qrow emitted a lip-vibrating sigh as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "That went pretty good."

Decompression occurred mostly in hunched-over, measured-breaths silence after that, with one exception. "Why on Remnant would Ozpin ignore the three of us but cave to you?" Weiss blurted out, too agitated from the experience to keep her mouth shut. She jabbed a finger in Opher's direction. "You're a nobody! It doesn't make any sense! Blake is almost literally the princess of the Faunus, Pyrrha's family might be the richest in Anima and I am a _Schnee_ , but noooooo, you waltz in here and change his mind?!" The longer he peered down at her with those dead green eyes, the less emphatic her posture became. Eventually she shrank with regret. "I… I didn't mean to put it that way…"

"There's a saying in Argus about the mouths of gift horses," Pyrrha warned her. "I suggest we take its advice."

She had a point; Opher wondered if the Headmaster knew more about him than he was letting on – and if that was the case, how did he find out? He flicked the brim of his hat and turned back toward the window. "I see she still has a very strange way of saying thank you."

"Then I'll do it right. Thank you. All of you, for standing with Ruby," Qrow said to the kids. "You didn't have to do that."

"And you shouldn't have!" she growled, jumping in place and waving her arms. "Dumb! Dumb dumb dumb! But… um, yes, thank you."

"Yeah, well, now we're even," he said, plucking a book from the shelf that caught his eye. The cover art featured four women standing next to each other; his brow creased thoughtfully. "I guess we're about to be real good friends."

"How'd you end up out here?" Jaune asked. "Were you on a job? 'Cause, man… the gods must really love us if that's the case. Talk about luck."

"Let's just say you have more people looking out for you than you think." Opher fired one more glance at Weiss as he put the book away.

"Hey, um, were you covering for me?" Ruby asked him, walking around the bed to approach before she clarified herself. "When you said you couldn't have saved us without me, were you trying to make me look good for Ozpin?"

"Nope." He bent down to more closely examine her face. "Why did it go off?"

"She was hallucinating a ton of Grimm," Yang explained. "Does that matter?"

"It does. It was trying to protect her – real threat or not." The way she squeaked when he gently seized her by the chin caused a smile; he didn't hold her for long before standing back up. "How much Aura did it use the first time?"

"It _broke_ her Aura," Weiss said, still trembling on her way down from the adrenaline rush. Like Nora, Jaune, and Blake, she visibly regulated her breaths.

"Not this go around. It used a lot, but it didn't break her."

He nodded once at Yang. "Yeah, well, it works like anything else; gets more efficient the more practice you've had. And before you even ask, it doesn't affect the mind."

"And we're just supposed to believe you? About either thing?"

This wasn't Yang speaking, but Pyrrha. Opher met her steely gaze, though he didn't reply right away – that steadfast, almost protective demeanor, especially toward Jaune, who stood beside her, reminded him too much of the girl from centuries past. "Say it was true, for the sake of argument. Why would I bother coming out here and going through all this trouble? If you get exiled – if you die – that just covers my tracks." They had no quick answer for this despite some mumbling among themselves.

"But if you're right, then Miss General Zhen wasn't," Ruby noted. "Maybe she didn't know any better, or… or she lied. That's—there's no way. The military would never, like…" So alien was the idea – or perhaps it was the effects of the lingering migraine – that she couldn't even find the words to communicate it. "No. It can't be. They're our protectors. If they say it's bad for you, it has to be bad for you."

"Perhaps someone was lying to her…" Weiss surmised. "Who could even _do_ that?"

"I don't give a fuuuuuuuuck right now. I just want to sleep." Yang took the bed her sister once occupied and stretched out. "After he tells us everything he knows about whatever it is Ruby can do. And we still need some way to get her checked out, too."

"Yeah… that's a good idea," Qrow said. "What's goin' on with Ruby?"

"And why does it hurt my eyes, like, ow, I don't _want_ it if it's going to make me go blind," she complained, rubbing her face with both hands.

"From what I understand, that should pass. You're the first silver-eyed person I've met so early in their… awakening, I guess? I think this happens to you when it firsts starts discharging. You won't lose your eyesight. It won't be the most comfortable thing you've ever experienced either. And at no point did anyone complain about it fucking with their perception." He took a breath – and the chance to stretch – before continuing. "Your power is everything the Grimm aren't. When you used it, it froze them like stone so I could hit them all. The people I knew with more experience used it to shatter them outright. They could discharge it in a full circle around themselves – and it would stop every Grimm it touched. Species doesn't matter. Neither does size."

"So, like what we can do, just in a 360-degree arc and not one at a time?" Nora asked.

"Not exactly. We can't kill the Grimm. Not even me." Their visible confusion was another testament to how far gone the world he knew had become. "Don't you know why they evaporate after they take enough damage?"

Yang dismissed the question with a wave of her hand. "Does it matter? If they can't attack anymore, that's all I care about."

"You haven't accomplished that, though. They recycle themselves. Only the power of the Lao—the silver-eyed can put them down permanently."

Pyrrha's arms went limp at her sides. "Excuse me?"

"Oh gods, you have a _lot_ to learn." He glanced down when Ruby waved. "Yes?"

"Y-you said you knew more people with silver eyes. How many are there?"

"When I was little, they were pretty common. Now, though…" His face softened. "You're the first one I've seen in a while."

"A-are you sure you've never met our mom, then? I can show you a picture! Maybe you just forgot?" A few sympathetic pats on the shoulder caused her to wilt with disappointment. "This feels like a no."

"I'm sorry. About a lot of things. Okay, yeah, I probably shouldn't have asked you to keep my secret."

"What kinda guy hides _two_ kidnapping attempts, by the way?" Nora interjected, crossing her arms when she got a surprised look. "Miss Stahl told Jaune and Pyrrha. Yeah, we know."

"Because my world and your world aren't the same thing." Opher stared out the window, hands clasped behind his back. "I thought I could run away from the war I've been fighting almost my whole life. I should have known better. I thought I could keep Indigo and Schwarze out of it by being… less than completely truthful." His shoulders began to slump. "That never seems to work either."

"What war? There's no war."

Blake's naivety came so close to amusing him that he smiled for an instant. "I can't even put into words how badly I wish that was true, but… every time someone gets exiled, or an expedition leaves Vale, or a young kid becomes a Hunter, or a soldier… that war is happening. The fight I tried to flee is the one you're all running toward right now."

"You mean the war against the Grimm?" Schwarze – who'd been spying on them from behind the mostly-closed door – smiled and waved as she entered the room. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself."

Opher made a face at her before turning away. "That's part of it. The Remnant Carmine wanted and the one she apparently left behind are so… _different_. Too fucking different." Pained glances went toward Pyrrha, then to Qrow. "The more I see of it, the worse it hurts. I have to know what happened. To her. To her dream."

"Well," Yang said to break up the uncomfortable silence that followed, "while you're here, you can teach us how to fight. Finally."

"To be fair, my fighting style would get you killed… but I suppose there are a few things I can pass on. Actually, I might be able to help Ruby too."

Jaune cocked his head. "How?"

"Like I said, I'm not the only one looking out for you guys." He nodded toward Schwarze. "Any idea where Indigo is? I'm hoping they're back by now."

"Hmmmm." She tapped the little black communications device on her left shoulder. "I'll find out. Come on!"

They were gone, with her leading him out by the wrist. Qrow lingered, however, still eyeing his nieces with worry. "You want me to hang out here for a while, or what?"

"Haven't you missed enough classes?" Ruby pointed out. "Don't get in more trouble than you already are."

"Port can cover for me just fine. Tell you what, I'll go get lunch for everyone. Who's hungry?" He smirked when Yang's hand shot up. "When aren't you hungry?"

"Oh, hush." The smirk left her face. "Do we trust him? Should we?"

"Do we have a choice?" Pyrrha replied, arms crossed and pacing slowly.

"Probably not." Yang grunted when Ruby fell across her stomach and laid there. "Excuse me, this one's occupied." She didn't move, but Yang was too lazy – and too kind – to try and shove her off. "Fuck me," she groaned, "I guess we owe him another one, huh."

"I'm not sure he's the kind of person I want to be in debt to," a grimacing Weiss mumbled, "but it's better than being dead."

* * *

Raven wandered around the giant cavern underneath Beacon Tower out of sheer boredom, using her Scroll light to see – it was so immense that darkness ate the white glow when she tried to figure out how high the ceiling was. "At least Shade's coffin has lights," she complained. "This is just a hole in the ground."

"Graves _are_ holes in the ground, you fool." Olivine walked toward the elevator, filling the stale air with the gentle clanking of her heavy armor. Her timing was nearly spot on; the doors opened and Ozpin stepped out just as she arrived. "What's this about, old man? Why are we meeting down here?"

Ozpin peered up at her over the rims of his tiny glasses, but he addressed his first words to Raven instead. "Emerald is quite industrious. She very nearly got the job done herself this morning."

"Then we finished it, but, yeah, Emmy did most of the work," she said, folding her powerful arms. Her face went blank with confusion when Ozpin shook his head. "What? I thought this was more than enough to push them over the top, what with everything the rich bitch and the Faunus know about Velvet."

"Yes. We were about to solve a whole slew of problems." His dull brown eyes went to Raven. "And then your brother happened."

She palmed her forehead hard. "...oh, fuck, what did he do now?"

"Apparently he loves your daughter enough for the both of you – and her sister to boot. In fact, he loves them _so_ much that he sought the help of the man you two tried to kill. And it _worked_."

" _What_?" Olivine snapped, voice echoing harshly around the cave. "When? How?"

"I suspect he abused his powers to get into Vale. I don't know how Riese found a way to campus yet. He just managed to catch me in their dorm room... we had quite the conversation. Long story short, I'm allowing them to stay here – including him."

"Why?!"

He weathered her outburst without expression. "Think about it. We've got a chance to observe him more closely now. Besides, having him in one spot where we can keep track of him means he'll pose less risk to you and that makes Salem happy. As for the kids, I'm having the two teams assigned to night patrols." He looked to Raven again. "I'll need Emerald for a little while longer, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving him off. "Isn't this bad, though? He might fill their heads with all kinds of stories. How do we keep tabs on that?"

"They're so rattled right now that they'll tell me everything if I merely ask. At any rate, they're going to be isolated enough once I'm finished. Lady Duprix, I want you to assume command of the Malachite gang and move them north toward Vytal. Riese came from Atlas. Perhaps they might know more about him on the northern shoreline. Lady Branwen, your tribe will take control of Mountain Glenn so you can continue pressuring our Army friends. Neither of you are to have contact with Riese," he concluded, nailing Olivine down with a piercing stare, "especially not _you_. Once Cinder has completed her ascension, then we'll have more options."

"Does that include trying to kill him?" Olivine asked.

"Possibly."

Raven chimed in next. "What do we do about the idiot who shares my DNA?"

"Were you a little better at making friends…" Ozpin quipped with a smile. "I'll handle it for now – it should be no trouble for me to use his nieces against him. If more drastic measures become necessary, I would rather let Salem know first."

Olivine wandered away from them a little, glaring her uncertainties into the clammy void. "Why does this guy keep helping them? It can't just be Pyrrha Nikos. Can it? Why even give Qrow the time of day, the fucker tried to kill him. Weird."

"I suspect it is less about the children and more about his two friends. If he'll go this far, we need to tread carefully." He allowed himself a little smile. "Although I would like to push him a little – if I'm going to take his body, we should at least figure out what it can do first."


	25. Lesson One

Ruby felt a dire need to get everyone's ducks in a row some hours later, when the sun had set and most of Beacon's students were safely in their rooms. She chose to hold the gathering outside despite the brisk air – in fact, she even moved it as far away from both sets of dorms as possible, which meant her team and Pyrrha's were gathered at the north gate of the campus, the one nearest to the Emerald Forest. Not much was said as they waited for the rest of the invitees to arrive.

First to show was Ilia, exactly as wide-eyed and frantic as Blake expected. "What happened this morning?!" she snapped at her best friend upon arrival. "Did Ozpin really-"

"Yes," she replied calmly. "He tried, anyway."

"Tried?"

Pyrrha folded her arms and stared into the dark, distant forest. "Someone intervened."

"He'll explain it when he gets here," Ruby said, rocking back and forth on her feet. "Probably."

A glowering Yang lacked her mild optimism. "Don't be so sure." Her eyes darted over when she noticed three people approaching on the main walkway. "Here they come."

The two women were in their blue field uniforms; Opher still had on the same shirt and cargo pants as earlier, plus his cherished hat. While a tired-looking Indigo was quiet and stared straight ahead, Schwarze was anything but subdued. She let him have it as they walked closer to the students, hands gesticulating wildly. "Do you realize we've been issued dysprosium-capped rounds? Aura-piercing? If I had to shoot you, it would be _very_ bad!"

"Uh huh." Opher rolled both shoulders to get the stiffness out of them. Once the two groups came together, he eyeballed Ilia. "And you are?"

"My best friend," Blake said. "I won't leave her out of this."

He continued to stare at her suspiciously; in return, he got an equally wary – and equally unyielding – glare. "Why should I trust her?" he asked, sliding his hands into his pants pockets.

"Because I do. And I would with my life."

"Fine. But if anything gets out, guess who I'll blame first?"

"Oh, shut up," Yang fired back. "If Blake trusts her, so do I. I sure trust her a hell of a lot more than I do you."

"This is the guy that convinced Ozpin not to kick you all out?" Ilia's brow furrowed at the nodding from Blake. "How? What did you do?"

Indigo stifled a yawn and moved to sit on the nearest bench. "Hoo boy, I cannot wait to hear this story."

"I just backed him into a corner. Although… Weiss, you had a good point earlier." She blinked at him and pointed at herself daintily. "Yeah, you did. Something's bothering me about why I won that argument."

Schwarze tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"I think he knows more about me than just what he watched on that girl's video. And there are very few ways he could have gotten that information." He put his hands behind his head and circled around the group slowly. " _Sketchy_ isn't nearly enough to describe how that guy strikes me. I don't like him. At all."

"Perhaps he saw what you did at the refinery?" Pyrrha smiled at his surprise. "General Zhen showed us. She also told us you were scanned at the scene."

While the refinery news was a bit of a shock, it was the name that really caused panic. "Zhen?!" Indigo gasped as she jumped to her feet, ochre eyes bulged slightly. "Which one?!"

"Whoa!" Ruby threw her hands up and backed away. "The Brigade General! Um… Xuefeng? Oh gods, there's no way I pronounced that right."

"Oh, fuck…" Now it was her turn to pace – Schwarze even fell in line behind her, wringing her hands with worry.

"I assume you two know her?"

The tall Atlesian smiled nervously. "Um, yes. Did she mention us at all?"

"Uhhhhh…" Yang's eyes rolled about in thought. "I think she might be mad about the airship crash that Indigo didn't tell her about, or something?"

Indigo's gait became much, _much_ more frantic. " _Fuck_! Fuck fuck fuck fuck-"

Opher tracked her hasty orbit with scowling bemusement. "What's the matter?"

"Ah, well, her older sister is Corps General Zhen… the officer who was at the top of our former chain of command. Suffice it to say, we do not get along with her very well? And by that, I mean-"

"We're gonna get fucking exiled anyway!" Indigo concluded for her.

"Why would you get exiled?" Jaune asked.

"That's not for your ears, man. Sorry." Indigo caught the look on Opher's face and came to a halt. "What?"

"Nobody's going anywhere." He patted both women on the head until they swatted at his hands. "But you'll have to fill me in later." Indigo nodded her assurance. "This Brigade General—is she the one that lied to you about remote priming?"

"They wouldn't lie to us!" Ruby insisted, arms thrust down for emphasis. "There's no way!"

Opher snorted at this. "I'm not lying to you, so one of us is wrong. Sounds like I need to set someone else straight again. Why did she care about it in the first place?"

"Probably because she's the second-in-command for the Army ALO – the Academy Liaison Office. Her boys work with Beacon to deploy graduates, to adjust the training doctrine, all that shit." Indigo shed her black beret to wipe the sweat off her bronze forehead. "Fuck… this is bad."

"Indy, sweetie, perhaps you shouldn't swear quite so much in front of the kids?"

Yang cracked a little smirk. "Doesn't fuckin' stop me." Ruby, of course, smacked her on the arm. "Neither does that, sis, just give it up already."

"Dang it!"

Opher shook his head at them. "Back to the point. Until we get a better handle on whatever the hell is going on, I think it's a good idea for us to do the patrols together. I'll train you as best I can, and, if you all don't mind, we might take a few field trips while everyone else is asleep. Might give you a chance to see the real world."

"Do we get a say?"

He shrugged lightly at Weiss. "It's up to you. Just saying, though, it's probably safer around me than if you're by yourself."

The students exchanged silent, uncertain looks among themselves until Indigo added, "He's got a point…"

"What _field trips_?" Pyrrha asked. "We can't leave our posts, we'll get in trouble. Not to mention the fact that walking any distance in the Emerald Forest is probably a bad idea."

"Walking. That's funny." Ilia's ongoing, suspicious gaze drew his eye next. "If you have something to say, say it."

"I don't think I like your idea either. Blake's already in danger of being exiled, you fool, she-" Saying it out loud caused her train of thought to cease. "Wait a minute. Why would he exile you for your first offense and not just send you home? You're the literal heir to the throne."

Her face went blank. "That's… that's a really good question, actually, I don't know. I don't even know if I should tell mom and dad what happened."

"Consistency," Yang said, folding her arms. "I mean, he was willing to kick Weiss and Pyrrha out."

"Yeah, but – and no offense – you guys aren't the future leader of a continent," Ilia countered. "Blake is the Adaeze of Kuo Kuana. She has an actual _royal_ , more or less, title, just like the children and relatives of your Queens and Kings."

Nora's face screwed up with confusion. "The what of Kuo Kuana?"

"It means… Weiss was right. I am, um, technically, a Princess." She looked over as Ruby emitted a squeal and clutched the sides of her head; both sisters abruptly dropped to one knee in respect. Even Pyrrha assumed a proper posture and bowed her head. "N-no, you don't have to do that! I'm still just me!"

Yang was the first to acquiesce and rise to her feet. "Why in the hell didn't you tell us this before?"

Ilia rolled her eyes. "Because Blake is the shyest Faunus alive, that's why."

"No it's not, and you know it! It shouldn't matter here. I'm just a Hunter in training like everyone else."

"You're a Belladonna, then! How on Remnant did you end up here?" Schwarze asked.

"Well…" she mumbled, shuffling her feet awkwardly, "My family is expected to lead from the front, so to speak. Dad actually goes out there with our soldiers when we need to clear Grimm from an area. So did mom – until I was born. When I take the throne, I'll have to do that too, and there's no better combat school to train me than Beacon." Her face screwed up a bit. "I guess."

"That's awfully risky, don't you think?" Weiss noted. "I suppose I can't say much, given the circumstances."

"Yeah, you're not exactly low-key about your family, there, snowbird," Nora joked lightly. She even nudged Weiss in the side.

"Oh, hush."

Indigo continued to examine the reluctant princess and her inability to stare at anything but her own boots. "Downplaying the family name, huh? Sounds like someone else I know…" She hardly reacted when Schwarze gently smacked a hand over her mouth.

Opher noted Weiss' curious reaction to the exchange between his uniformed friends, filing away her surprise for later. "Is there, I don't know, maybe some reason he'd want to get rid of you?"

"Wh-what? No! I haven't done anything since I got here!"

"Pfff, Blake getting in trouble? Fat chance. She'd rather hide in bed and read," Yang said, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand.

"Velvet." Weiss swallowed hard when the whole gathering looked at her. "It is the biggest thing that's happened to us besides all of this."

"But that's over," she insisted. "Miss Goodwitch already explained-"

"Hold on, what about Velvet?" Pyrrha interjected, stepping over toward the two girls. "What happened?"

"It's the stuff we can't tell you about." Blake's feline ears went flat against her head briefly. "Sorry. Not that it matters, because like I said, it's over."

"Are you sure?"

Blake and Weiss cast an uncertain look toward Ruby. The former replied, but only after a moment of awkward staring at her feet. "I guess the whole thing has been bothering me for a while… maybe… maybe that's why the Grimm were after us so much that night." Ilia arrived for a hug, which she accepted automatically.

Yang also offered her support in the form of a solid pat on the shoulder. "Hey, don't blame yourself for anything. We told you before, we know you're stuck with it."

"Unless that, plus Ruby's situation… maybe the two things put together were enough to cause Ozpin to react the way he did." Pyrrha returned to her own team, frowning lightly. "If that's the case, why us too? Just because we defended her?"

Indigo sat down on the bench again with a big sigh. "Might be. I don't know if Beacon does this, but the Army has something called the 'going down together' policy. If people get too emotional 'cause someone is being exiled from the unit, then they go too. It's the only way to keep troops alive when you're that far away from Vale."

"I guess we are pretty far away from Vale," Jaune admitted. He jumped a little when Pyrrha gently seized him by the hand.

"Seems like a good way to lose your whole unit in a hurry."

The two soldiers glanced uncomfortably at Opher before Schwarze hugged herself lightly and said, "Sometimes."

"Right. Well, at first blush it looks like we're all tangled up in some kind of bullshit, so I suggest we lay low until we can figure out how to start untying the knots. Can you two align your patrols with us?"

"All you'd have to do is ask Lieutenant Vespa. She's hornier for you after this morning than Schwarze is."

"Indigo!"

"I'm not wrong."

"Hmm. I might speak to her when I'm done with you two." He turned his attention to the students next. "You gonna try and shift your sleep schedules, or what?"

"We haven't decided yet," Pyrrha replied. "To be honest, we're still trying to figure out how much we need to carry for a patrol this long."

"Yeah. Don't feel too pressured. If I'm out there with you, you aren't gonna die." One more glance went toward Ilia before he waved at his friends. "If there's nothing else, I'd like to go get dinner."

He walked off – alone, as Indigo and Schwarze lingered with them for a moment. "What's he really like?" Yang asked. "'Cause we don't know shit about him."

"I'm fairly sure he shows the same face to everybody," Schwarze replied as they watched him walk away. "I don't think he's a bad person. Perhaps… he just doesn't fit in anywhere."

"Which means he fits in pretty well with us," Indigo sighed. "We're off. I think Pyrrha's got my number if you need us for something. Night."

"Night, gun friend!" Ruby waved. After a lip-rattling sigh, she turned to Ilia. "Hey, are you gonna come with us to keep an eye on Blake?" she asked, since they were still stuck together in a hug.

"I can't. I don't think my leader will go for it. But you call me if you need help, you hear?!" she said, pinching Blake's pale cheeks.

"Ow! Stop that!"

"Gods, please tell me you two are gonna get married someday. You're adorable as fuck."

"Yang!" Blake waved her hands at her around Ilia, who refused to let go, drawing a few laughs from the rest of them.

As the noise died down, however, Ruby's smile grew false and wooden. She waited to hallucinate again, expecting the worst, tense, ready for her mind to betray her and everyone else one more time. It never did – though she nearly jumped out of her boots when Yang tapped her shoulder for attention. " _Gaaaaaaaaahh_!"

"Wake up, Ruby. World's out here."

"D-don't scare me like that!" she huffed. "Maybe we should get back. There's a lot of work to do."

"Yeah," her sister agreed, staring up at Beacon Tower. "Yeah, there is. Let's go."

Most of them left – but not all, thanks to Ilia, who gently seized Blake and Weiss by a shoulder and slowed them down enough to break the group up. "Hold on a minute. What's the Velvet thing you were talking about, Weiss?"

She deflected with nervous grace. "I'm really not at liberty to say, Ilia. I'm sorry."

So Ilia looked to Blake for an answer instead. Instead of saying anything, she glanced away and donned a wavy-mouthed frown.

"She… she can't tell you either," Weiss advised after a few awkward seconds.

Knowing Ilia would never let the subject go, Blake chose to deal with it right now as best she could. "Something awful happened to her before she came to Beacon."

"Blake! No!" she whispered harshly. "What are you doing?! We're in enough trouble already-"

"Like I said, I trust Ilia. And I should trust you, too, Weiss. You need to hear this." One deep, sharp breath later, Blake unloaded the whole story. "There was some kind of… forced labor camp. I don't know where. But… it was Faunus. All Faunus. A lot of them. And it was there so long that Velvet was born in it."

"Wh-what do—what are you—what is," Weiss stammered, stumbling backwards away from them as the color drained from her face and the lucidity departed her brain. Her heart jumped all the way up her throat. Words smeared out into warbled mumbling.

"Who's camp?!" Ilia demanded. "How many?!"

"A bunch. And…" Blake stared hopelessly at the staggered Weiss. "If I'm putting two and two together right, an SDC executive was behind it-"

Ilia's reaction was instant and harsh; she dashed over and grabbed a terrified Weiss by the collar of her white bolero jacket and held firm. " _What have you done_?!" she hissed.

Blake sandwiched herself between them. "Ilia, no, no. No! She didn't do anything. It was someone in Mistral. Let her go." Ilia wouldn't, so she had to detach her by force – mild force, but still a shove. Ilia charged again, so Blake had to block her. "Stop it. It's over. It's over, damn it, Ilia, stop it!"

"I swear to both gods," she growled, pointing at Weiss around her best friend, "if you lay a finger on Blake I will have your head!"

The whole thing was attracting attention; namely Pyrrha, who clanked toward them to investigate the fuss. "Ah, what's going on?" she asked upon arrival. "Ilia? Weiss?"

"I have to go!" Weiss snapped, flat-out running away from the affair as fast as her heeled boots would take her.

Ilia did the same – not to pursue, but to find her team. "We'll pick this up later," she said to Blake on the way off.

"What happened?" a startled Pyrrha asked.

"The truth," Blake replied. "I'll… I'll figure out the best time to explain. I don't think it's right now."

* * *

A sleepless night slid into an equally restless day until, finally, they'd caught enough catnaps or taken enough piper to get some amount of rest. The time had come. Like last night, they chose to gather at the north gate; Ruby cooed with glee at her precious mechanical child, cradling Crescent Rose like an infant as they moved into the southernmost fringes of the Emerald Forest and the network of streams that acted as its border. "Oh, my baby," she mumbled to it. "Mama missed you so much."

"She loves her gun almost as much as you love yours!"

"Oh, shut up, Schwarze."

Pyrrha's mind was on other things – mostly the incredible distance Weiss currently put between herself and her team as she texted someone on her Scroll. Blake was noticeably aloof, too, although this could be chalked up to the huge weight on her back; she had volunteered to try and carry eight hours' worth of stores for four people, and suffered for the effort. She wobbled around with the massive black rucksack dragging her down from behind. "Blake? Do you need some help?"

"I'm… I'm good, thank you."

"What's up with Weiss?" Jaune mumbled to his leader. "She's acting awfully weird."

"I'm not quite sure," she admitted lowly, "and I'm not sure I should pry just yet. Blake says she'll explain."

"If we're even alive by then," Nora grumbled.

"Such little faith. Do you see Miss Stahl's rifle? Holy shit, that thing could rip a building in half," Yang pointed out. "Look at it!"

Nora – who bore her team's rucksack much easier than Blake – smirked. "Sure, Yang, sure. Size isn't everything, you know. Just look at me! And Ruby. And Weiss."

The rifle bearer was on a Scroll call up until this point, when she ended it and addressed the whole crowd. "All right, we're on the clock. Move it. Power people at the rear. We'll flank. Put your speed up front."

Ruby glanced around before they set off. "Wait, where's Opher?"

"He'll be along. You've got us." She waved at the gate and lifted her titanic gun onto one shoulder.

They departed campus at a snail's pace; most of them were visibly stiff with nerves, but a pallid, droopy Weiss looked the worst off by far. Ruby and Pyrrha were the tips of the spear, with Indigo and Schwarze flanking their teams. Yang and Nora provided the rear guard as they trudged toward the thickets, while Blake moved with her dejected teammate to offer as much support as possible. "And what is he doing, exactly?" Yang asked, flicking away a few examples of the nocturnal insects which populated the woods.

"He said he wanted to look around ahead first." Her ochre eyes smiled a bit. "I'm sure he's fine. I mean, you've seen him in action… more times than I thought, I guess."

"Hmm. I suppose we have his inability to let go to thank for us still being alive." Pyrrha cast a long look at the broken Moon hanging far above them. "Eight hours. I… I don't know if we're ready for this."

Blake continued to struggle under the weight of the black backpack as they began to enter the undergrowth. "At least it's quiet, I guess?" She squeaked when Yang pushed on the sack from behind to lighten her load. "Ah! Careful!"

"Sometimes that isn't a good sign." Schwarze cast her eyes around as the forest embraced them completely – now they could only catch glimpses of Beacon Tower through the canopy. "A two kilometer perimeter is quite a long way, though. It'll take us a while to do one pass."

"I can't believe Ozpin went for this idea," Jaune noted. "I thought he didn't want to endanger you guys. We can't be the safest people to be around right now."

Indigo shrugged at him. "Lieutenant Vespa begged him to do it 'cause, well… I think I was right about her wanting to get into his-"

"Indy! No! Behave yourself!"

"That would be a first. And, anyway, we're gonna need a bigger bed if this party gets any larger." They turned to see Opher walking up behind them, hands in his pockets. After returning Yang's distrustful stare with a blank look, he walked over to Indigo. "I've already done a sweep and wiped out what little Grimm I saw. Whole perimeter should be clear."

A startled Schwarze did some quick math. "You… you've already covered a twelve and a half kilometer path?" she asked, hands on her holsters. "We've only been out here for ten minutes!"

He stretched his arms up over his head and started walking ahead of them, grinning to himself. "Then maybe you should pick up the pace."

"Fuck you, we can't fly!" Indigo snapped as she fell in behind him.

A huffy Schwarze snapped her fingers. "Indy! Really! Don't swear in front of the kids!"

"She certainly reminds me of someone," Weiss noted with a roll of her eyes, digging out snark simply to distract herself. "Hold on. You can fly? I mean, I suppose I can too, technically, but not without using a lot of Aura."

"Ooooo! That reminds me! Ah… never mind, maybe this is a bad time to ask for a demonstration." Schwarze blinked when he looked over his shoulder at her.

"Actually…" He stared northwest toward the weird little ping he felt the last time he was out in this forest, though it was much weaker here than when he'd met Ruby and Pyrrha and their friends in their haphazard ice fortress. "Who has the best maps?"

"It's probably Schwarze," Indigo pointed out. "We use Air Force topology sweeps. Why?"

"Something is over there and it's bothering me," he explained, pointing toward the invisible signal.

Ruby opened her Scroll, accessed the map, and aimed it in that direction. "Huh? There's nothing over that way but the… but…" The training sector overlay caused her to swallow hard. "Sector four. The ruins… we were running away from the Geists there the day you saved us."

Opher and his friends shared a curious glance. "What ruins?" he asked.

"Does it matter?" Yang asked, arms crossed grumpily.

"If I didn't think so, I wouldn't be asking about it." He took a few uncertain steps into the trees, making sure his back was to the group. "Do any of you get motion sickness?" he asked after subtly producing a gravity Dust crystal from his pocket. No response beyond some uncertain noises. "I'll take that as a no."

"Why are you asking?" Pyrrha fired back.

By now, Opher had swallowed the crystal whole and it was breaking down into his bloodstream. One uplifted hand caused all of their shoes to detach from the soil – as well as causing a few panicked yelps of surprise. After carefully maneuvering the students through the trees – Indigo was much calmer, although Schwarze visibly squirmed – he joined them above the canopy.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" Yang shrieked into the night, arms and legs flailing. She grabbed onto Ruby when her sister swam through the air to cling. A few motions from Opher made the cause quite obvious. "Put us down, you asshole!"

"Relax, he knows what he's doing," Indigo said – although she was holding a nervous Schwarze's hand. "Opher? Where are we going?"

He stared into the night, arms folded. "I want to see those ruins."

"No! Those things mess with our Auras! Our Scrolls won't work there either!" Blake said frantically. "We won't be able to call for help!"

Their collective unease was enough to cause howls in the far, far distance from Grimm they had no hope of seeing. Opher didn't care, but he was interested in what Blake had said. "I am the help."

Pyrrha's long red ponytail fluttered in the breeze – she looked rather like a muscular, airborne flagpole. "I'm not trying to say you aren't capable, but maybe you should put us down so we don't get in troub— _a_ _aaaa_ _ahhhhhhhhhhhhh_!"

They were off. Not as fast as Opher carried Indigo to Vale, but still proceeding at a decent clip over the trees and streams toward his target, trailing screams and curse words as they flew. If there were Grimm below them, they didn't notice; with nothing airborne to worry about, he focused on cutting the straightest possible path toward the stone monuments. That twisted, unseen cry grew louder and louder with each meter he covered until it dominated most of his mind's eye. He eased the whole group to a stop and looked down upon their faceted magnetite glory sparkling in the moonlight directly below. "Found 'em."

Once everyone's feet were back on solid ground, an incensed Yang stormed through their number with one armed cocked back. "You son of a bitch!" she screamed as her Aura wailed against the stones' influence, "Are you trying to get us killed?!"

"Yang, wait! No!" Ruby called, in hot pursuit. Too late; her sister threw the ready punch at Opher's head.

He caught her fist and held it, pinning her down with possibly the greatest, dead-eyed _are you_ _actually_ _stupi_ _d_ look in recent Remnant history. He maintained that stare until he detected a hint of regret in her glower. "Now then," he said, releasing her fist, "let's have a peek."

Meanwhile, Jaune hopped around like ants were crawling in his jeans, smacking his back and stomach. "Wh-what the heck?!"

Nora also bounced around under much the same circumstances, squeaking and waving her folded-up hammer around as if swatting insects. After a minute of this, she had to doff the rucksack to move around more freely. Ruby and her team, meanwhile, huddled together while the ruins torqued their Auras and left them tingling and frozen. Of the students, Ren and Pyrrha seemed to suffer the least – though the redhead's wide-eyed expression indicated clear discomfort.

Indigo and Schwarze hid their unease even better. "Cutie?" asked the latter, brushing her pale fingertips across the mossy green rock, "Why do I feel so odd?"

Because this was a footprint of a god. Opher couldn't remember the last time he'd seen a marked leyline vector like this – not on Solitas, not in the empty land, nowhere. "We used to fight over these," he breathed into the stiff wind. While its field bullied their Auras, it was forced into a wordless conversation with his mutated essence. "You ran away from this?"

"It attracted the Grimm!" Weiss spat at him as Blake, standing nearby, shed her cargo too.

"It… what?" he replied, genuinely baffled.

"Well, the way it messed with our Auras attracts the Grimm, which is why we shouldn't be here, you actual moron," an angry Yang clarified.

"Like you being constantly annoyed with me isn't doing that anyway." Opher gave one of the stones a solid push to see how rooted in the ground it was. It didn't budge. "How long did you stay here?"

"Not very!" Ruby said. "We were kinda fleeing for our lives from monsters that were like, you know, a billion meters tall."

Opher cast a look over his shoulder at another disturbance somewhere off in the forest. "Are there more ruins over there?" he asked while pointing.

"Not that we know of—wait." Ruby looked in one direction, then another, then another still for a few seconds. "The Geists were made of the same rocks. That might be—hold on a second, are you feeling something from these things? What? How?"

"None of you can?" A whole bunch of shaking heads was Opher's answer. "Pyrrha? Not even you?"

She could only shrug. "Should I?"

"Why am I even surprised," he hissed under his breath. Howls of approaching Grimm in the distance drew all their gazes.

"Oh gods, they're coming," Jaune said, hand already on the pommel of his sword.

"Yeah, um, Opher? We might want to find a better position than this, we can get attacked from all sides out here." Indigo only stopped searching for an alternative and turned to him when he didn't reply. "Did you hear me?"

"Let them come." He absorbed their horrified – or angry – looks with stoic calm before sitting on one of the great green rocks. "You want two things from me, right? Lessons and honesty. You're about to get some of both." The second a beast emerged through the treeline – in this case a tall, spiky Beowolf whose powerful hind legs allowed it tear across the grass – he snapped his fingers. Blue fire leapt from his palm, tracking down and engulfing the monster in a column of magic that dissolved its legs and left it to crumble across the ground. Stunned silence from the kids followed – and Schwarze too, though Indigo was a little bit more composed since she'd witnessed it before.

"This stuff again… what is it?" she asked, walking over to sit with him as the students tried to collect themselves. Before an answer could come, more Grimm arrived, mostly Ursae of various sizes; she couldn't even get her gun raised before azure flames launched out from Opher's hand and reaped every monster dumb enough to come close.

Instinct, of course, drove everyone to cluster around him. To ease their minds, he set up a barrier of the true art which, as it had the night of the airship crash, reduced whatever Grimm that crossed it to black vapor – all while leaving fleeing animals and the trees untouched. "What… what am I looking at?" Pyrrha finally stammered.

"The way men fought before Dust."

Weiss managed to tear her gaze away from dying Grimm first to look at him. "Excuse me?"

He stared up at the Moon – the sliver of his consciousness dedicated to maintaining the magical security fence was so tiny that he didn't need to look at the barrier to ensure its integrity. "In the beginning…" His eyes closed. "My parents used to tell me stories about when Remnant was new. Not only about the days before Dust, but the days before Grimm."

"Th-the days before Grimm? But Grimm have always been here," Ruby countered weakly.

"No they haven't." Another forlorn look at the Moon. "I have… left out... a lot of things since I got to Vale because the truth as I know it would make me seem crazy. The truth as _you_ all seem to know it just makes me sick."

Yang watched a Death Stalker fracture against Opher's power with her jaw dropped. "What are you talking about?" she finally tossed back over her shoulder.

"I've spent my entire life in the Remnant between – beyond – your Kingdoms. I see the world as it is. In Carmine's case… as it should have been." He hopped off of the rock and walked through them toward the edge of the ruins. "Here's your chance to teach me a little something. As Hunters… what are you all meant to be doing, exactly? When you graduate, I mean."

Ruby, hopping around, arms swinging, antsy with nerves, had the answer. "We protect – errrr, we're _going_ to protect expeditions. Once they get too far out, the Army can't help them anymore most of the time, sooooo, that's on us! And if we're good at it, then we can keep villages going until they get bigger!"

"Which is how Patch ended up being settled," her sister added. "Can you please explain what the fuck this blue stuff is?"

"Didn't I already?"

Indigo glared daggers at him. "No, you were vague. As usual."

"I guess I was." He doffed his hat and smiled. "I taught all of you remote priming. This… I can't teach you this. It's not an insult to your ability, you physically cannot learn it. This is magic."

"Magic?" Blake said, scratching at her wavy hair. "Like… fairy tale magic? Story magic? Are you serious?"

"It's not even burning the grass," Pyrrha noted, pointing a gloved finger at the base of the wall. "Dust. This has to be some kind of Dust."

"No…" Weiss wandered off slightly and stared at the endless horde of Grimm that tried and failed to pierce the cerulean wall. "He's been doing this for, what, fifteen minutes? He'd be out of Aura by now. And regardless, I don't know of _any_ species of Dust that generates fire this color. Something else is going on."

"Okay, so it's weird, but… magic. Really." Yang tossed her blonde hair back over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry. It's like trying to describe color to a person that was born blind. I can't. I don't know how." Smile thoroughly destroyed, he put his hat back on and rejoined them. "But… just because you can't learn what I do doesn't mean you don't have a little piece of that power already. Something you know how to use quite well, I'm sure." He waited until he had their full attention before saying what. "Semblances."

"Wh-what?" Pyrrha stuttered at length.

He folded his arms again. "They're all related. I don't just mean Dust, Aura, and Semblances, you all know that already. I mean those things and this." One nod went toward his blue fire. "Think of everything that Dust can do. Now think of everything your Semblances can do-"

"Uh, I don't actually have one, though."

Opher looked back as Pyrrha rested a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "You don't?"

"It doesn't matter," she said, ready to defend his honor. "He's still going to be an excellent fighter."

"Not saying he won't be… hmm." This gave Opher an idea. They watched as he shaved off chunks of the magnetite with seemingly only his fingertips, although little whispers of fire magic were involved too. Once the rock cooled, he began handing them out to the group. All the while, Grimm continued to flow into his blue wall and get destroyed at various rates as they watched in baffled silence. "Have these on you at all times. Wear them, keep them in your pocket, whatever."

"Why?" Nora asked.

"Because this stone will enhance your Aura. It would be ideal if we could come out here every night and expose you to the ruins, but if not, that's the next best thing."

"What do you mean _enhance_?"

He looked over at Schwarze. "One thing at a time. Like I was saying… Dust, Semblances and magic are all the same thing. The difference between your magic and mine is where it comes from."

"This is absolutely ridiculous. We know exactly what Dust is and how it works!" Weiss countered with a huff. "The priming mechanism is one of the most well-understood aspects of human and Faunus biology-"

Opher silenced her with a snap of his fingers – no blue fire emerged this time, of course. "If you wanna believe the idea that you can convert electromagnetism into fucking ice, then I can't help you. And explain to me how science thinks we convert Aura into, I don't know, any one of the fifty types of Semblances? Why does it make Ruby faster when it gives you the power to create little bubbles of electrical charges? Why does it let Ren hide emotion, but lets Yang store kinetic energy for an attack later? Why does _one_ thing express itself in such wildly different ways?"

Weiss glanced over her shoulder as another horde of beasts tried and failed to pierce the flickering azure walls. "Be-because… I grant you that Semblances might be the _least_ understood aspect of our biology, but..."

"It's not biology. Trying to fill this hole with science is like taking a bucket to the beach to steal the ocean. You all have a little bit of magic in you. Your souls express it in different ways."

"Souls?" Indigo noted. "Are we getting religious?"

"Yeah. I suggest you start reading the scripture. It's as close to the truth as you're gonna get these days." He looked over at Ruby and Yang. "What?"

"Are you saying Their word is like… totally real? Really real? Seriously real?" Ruby asked, hopping over to face him directly.

"If I said yes, what would you think?"

"I mean…" Yang muttered as she joined her sister. "We always believed."

"Then keep believing." Opher scanned his firewall and noted how few Grimm were now trying to pierce it. "Nobody's anxious about their Auras anymore, are they?"

"...he's right!" Nora exclaimed. "I don't feel weird at all now." Nodding from Ren backed that sentiment up.

"Good. The acclimation period is already over." Opher flicked a look at Schwarze. "Magnetite repels Aura. If you wear it, it forces your Aura to shrink."

"That sounds exclusively bad," a worried Jaune noted.

"It would be… if you didn't regenerate Aura on top of your shrunken Aura without losing the original field. Remove the effect and suddenly your Aura is bigger than before, or keep the exposure up and your Aura continually collapses upon and replenishes itself without you needing to exert physical effort – or getting into dangerous situations." He rapped a fist against the mossy green rock. "I've heard it called Aura compression. It's like fighting a war without showing up to the battle. Granted, you should still stabilize it with meditation – and I'm not saying you shouldn't still exercise – but exposing yourself to this rock would be a good idea."

The redhead clapped her hands and pointed at him. "That's what happened to you! That's why your Aura is so large!"

Opher dispatched a few lingering Ursae with idle waves of his hand, hiding the true pain of his genesis with a smile. "Pretty much."

Weiss, however, was still suspicious. "I have never heard of this before. Besides, didn't you listen to Blake? This material interferes with our Scrolls."

"Chunks that small shouldn't cause you trouble, but if they do, I'll shave off smaller shards. Besides, you didn't know about remote priming either, and that seems to have worked out well for you."

"That's a good point," Ruby admitted, "assuming you're not lying about it being harmless. Orrrrrr all of this."

"Right, call me a liar when I've been treating Grimm like mosquitoes and carrying on a conversation at the same time." The blue firewall suddenly departed, since the flow of beasts had now ceased entirely. "All right, enough theory. Let's do something practical."

They grabbed their luggage and fell in with or behind him, muttering among themselves with various levels of wariness about his revelations. The three adults moved ahead a bit. "Magic, dude? Are you serious? And the stone… Weiss is right, why the fuck am I just hearing about all this shit from you?" Indigo mumbled up to him. "Oh, and so much for Atlas. Yet another lie."

"You're worried about the color of the fire hose when the house is burning down, I think. I'm more concerned about why nobody else seems to know what I grew up with as facts."

"It is rather hard to argue with what I just saw and felt back there," Schwarze stated. "Although I'm not sold on the whole magic thing either." The kids were now listening in on their chat, but Opher's body language said it was fine, so she gave them room to eavesdrop.

"Excuse me!" Ruby said. "What about my thingy? You know. The light?"

"What about it?"

Her red cloak billowed out in the brisk wind. "Is it… magic?"

"Yeah. To make things simple, I guess, I'd call my power and your silver-eyed discharge primary magic. Dust, Semblances, Aura… those would be secondary magic. Like I said, the difference is their source."

"Okay, for the sake of argument, where does hers come from then?"

Opher looked at Yang blankly for a few seconds before Blake rushed up to warn them about something she'd seen in the forest beyond. "Death Stalker. Big one!" she gasped.

It crashed through the trees a second later, shrieking its rage. This was an elder, clad in white steel, snapping its giant claws open and shut with ear-splitting cracks of chitin against chitin. The moment it saw them, it charged, eliciting screams of terror and forcing the kids to scatter. Indigo raised her giant gun again to attack, but a flick of Opher's wrist forced the barrel downward as he raised his other hand. The monster slowed to a stop not a meter away from him, claws splayed, legs frozen, tail curled but motionless – it became a hateful statue, secured by his gravity magic. "It's all right," he called back to everyone. "You're completely safe. Come back. Stand next to it."

"Are you fucking nuts?!" Yang screamed at him, agitated by the memories of her last encounter with one of these nightmares.

Jaune was the first to press his luck, which dragged a trembling Pyrrha along. He actually put a hand on one of those giant claws and kept it there without harm. "Whoa. Whoa! It feels cold! Like rock!"

"Holy fuck, dude…" Indigo said, walking over to tap the beast herself. Soon, they all gathered around the genocidal museum exhibit to poke at it.

"One of these nearly killed us," the redhead mumbled. "Why can't it move? What are you doing to it?"

"I know more than one way to stop Grimm." Opher led them around to its rear. "I assume you've seen one of these before?"

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeah," Nora droned uneasily. "You could say that."

"We couldn't get through its armor." Using her shield, Pyrrha tapped the creature's black flesh and blinked at how hard it was. "What are these things made of—wait, if you can restrain them, they can be studied!"

"Let's practice killing them first before anyone tries to get scientific." Opher motioned at where the tail joined with the body; here, the snowy armor stopped covering the top of the angry insect. "Their plates stack as they age, layers upon layers of armor. The white stuff is like granite. Not only is it multiple layers of protection, but the armor is actually spaced. Each sheet has a little air gap underneath."

"Which reduces the effect of AP due to projectile spalling," Indigo concluded thoughtfully. "Can't imagine what it would do to sword or blade strikes. Probably renders them useless."

"Yeah. So don't hit the armor. All you need is something that can pierce the base of the tail far enough, then explode in the Stalker's center of mass. I assume most decent bullets can do that." He waved at Ruby. "You've got a gun, right? Stand behind it and put a shot through here. Anything that will penetrate and go boom."

"Um, okay." She whipped her child into rifle format and reached into a belt pouch to produce a bog standard AP round with fire Dust filler. A little negotiation with the bolt allowed her to load the single shot manually. While she considered manually priming it, Ruby chose to trust Remnant again and closed her eyes to pray. "Stand back, please! Gun's hot!" No scope aiming was required; she easily put the bullet on Opher's target and it sliced through like butter.

They didn't have to guess whether or not the round exploded. Seconds later, the tail fell off, nearly squishing Nora and Ren in the process, and the beast suddenly went limp. Opher released it, it crumpled to the ground, and the vaporization process began. "There you go. Nice shot." Their stunned looks, Schwarze and Indigo included, tugged a smile across his clean-cut face. "Based on those expressions, I'd say you've got a lot to learn. Well… welcome to lesson one."

"Gods help me," Yang murmured, producing her Scroll.

Jaune copied her. "Good idea. We better take notes."

"Yeah," she said, staring at the screen as she checked on the status of the audio recording that had been in progress since she left Beacon. "Notes."

* * *

While amazement was something that generally hovered out of her apathetic reach, even Cinder needed some time to process the reality of her new home away from home. The wine-colored sky, full of nonsensical stars and a Moon frozen in space – or whatever passed for space in this unholy realm; it all baffled her.

So much as anything _could_ baffle her, at least. She'd taken up staring out the window's of Salem's purple mansion, absorbing the sight of the bloody, crystalline ground and the black pools of hatred from which, occasionally, she would see a few little Grimm pupae wiggle. They would writhe across the jagged red soil until its sharp edges wounded them too much and they expired, at which point they would return to the black clouds high above as little puffs of eldritch vapor to be recycled and try again. Even more confusing were the children who seemed to live here. As she watched, a few of the particularly brave ones would approach a birthing pool, show enough emotion to pull a few larvae out, and then… they'd play with them. Hug them. Let them wiggle in their laps like feisty puppies. One of the girls, noticing her in the window, waved.

Cinder waved back. Why not? She had to respect their _fearlessness_ , as it were, a marked change from the tribe and planet she'd left behind. On Remnant, the Grimm were death.

Here? They were just part of the scenery.

"Enjoying the view?"

A glance fired back over her shoulder betrayed the silent arrival of Salem, who moved forward not on footsteps, but like a ghost, the hem of her black dress mere centimeters off the floor. The Aspect came to a halt at her side to look out the window as well; _all_ of the children waved when they noticed her, and she waved back with a motherly smile. Cinder said nothing.

"The hard work is about to begin," she stated lowly. "Where has Amber gone? I thought she'd be helping you get used to… things."

"I believe she's with Lady Stavros."

"Of course." Salem loosed a quiet sigh. "How are _you_ doing?"

Cinder turned just enough to look at her beyond the hair which covered her face. "I don't understand this… place. Dimension. Whatever it is."

That drew a laugh. "I don't think anyone does. Not even me." She tried to interpret the blankness Cinder displayed. "Their power is – was – utterly incomprehensible. Not even I know how it works."

That glassy yellow eye went back toward observing the kids outside. "You approve of this?" she asked, loosely crossing her arms.

"I encourage it." The gleaming ivory sticks in her fluffy white bun straightened themselves without her moving a muscle. "The more accustomed to the Grimm they become, they better off they will be as retainers in our service."

"Retainers… servants." Cinder's brow lifted slightly. "Is that what I am?"

"Absolutely not. _You_ are my daughter-in-waiting." A warm smile appeared on her glacial face as she brought her hands together. "Come. Let's leave this stuffy old house. I want to show you something."

They didn't need to walk down the hallway to exit her mansion, nor find any kind of door; a wave of Salem's hand caused the window before them to fold up in the wall, leaving an unprotected rectangular hole. Its bottom contorted into a staircase which traveled downward toward the garnet soil. Hand-in-hand, they descended it, attracting the eyes of the children playing nearby.

"Your Grace," one of the boys said, bowing his head when they reached the bottom. The other kids followed his lead.

"Hello there. Careful not to fall into the pool," she said, chiding them pleasantly, almost like a nanny. "Or I'll never hear the end of it from your parents."

"Yes ma'am!" the whole group replied. "Ma'am, who is this?" one of the girls piped up afterward, pointing at Cinder.

"This is the summer successor," Salem explained gently. "Her name is Cinder Fall."

A collective "Ooooooo!" went up from the kids as they bowed respectfully again. "Hello, Lady Fall!" said the same girl.

"...hello," Cinder answered after a brief pause, bowing her head slightly in return.

One flick of Salem's wrist dismissed the stairs behind them, crushing the structure back into the wall and window it was previously. "I'm afraid we must be on our way," she noted, still smiling. "Good day, children."

They jumped and waved as both women ascended into the air, propelled by the silent embrace of Salem's gravity magic. The ruddy plains and their jagged, amethyst-colored rock outcroppings fell away; they were dozens, then hundreds, then perhaps over a kilometer distant below. While Cinder did tense up instinctively, her face never lost its default, vacant expression. Every direction she looked featured the same sights, more or less – an immense expanse of red rocky ground, which undulated in gentle hills and valleys into the infinite distance. Thanks to the flawless atmosphere, she could see hundreds of kilometers and found, to her curiosity, that the area never actually seemed to terminate. "How large is this place?" she asked once Salem stopped their ascension.

"It has no limit. At least not one I've been able to find." She pointed an alabaster hand in a seemingly random direction. "See that?"

Cinder tracked her motion toward a huge formation of the glassy purple stone, much larger and taller than the other shards that jutted up from the ground – so tall, in fact, that it appeared to top out at roughly their altitude. That wasn't the most interesting part, however; this jagged, mountainous thing had Grimm crawling on it – not the usual types, nor sizes, that Cinder was used to dealing with, but absolute _titans._ Two were easiest to see: first a spider, replete with curved white markings across its black body, whose total bulk would have encompassed several city blocks in her old home of Vacuo. The other was a draconic beast with four wings, of equally impressive stature, whose spiny black tail was so long and wide it could have carried multiple lanes of road traffic. This creature occupied a cluster of spires near the top of the structure. "Are those Grimm? And what is that thing they're climbing on?" she asked, her dull eye slightly wider than usual.

"Yes. These creatures were among His first creations." Again she had to interpret Cinder's stony visage – a process which left her no closer to determining the girl's emotions than when she started. "Were you religious? Before the incident, I mean."

"My family was." Her eye drifted down toward the surface for an instant. "What about it?"

"That formation is His throne. This dimension is built around it. It sustains everything you can see – and everything you cannot."

Gazing upon the literal seat of a lost god's power would have brought anyone else to their knees, but Cinder's damaged mind couldn't make those connections properly anymore. A toneless "I see," emerged after a moment.

Salem's face creased with sadness – and a silent prayer. "Those beasts were to be the end of a war, when Remnant was still new and men were still able to channel the true art's holy – or unholy – power. As it turned out, they weren't needed."

"Then how did the war end?"

Those crimson eyes shut briefly. "It didn't." She detected a new presence gaining altitude fast; by the time her eyes opened, Amber was just gliding to a stop to join them. Her green cloak fluttered, not thanks to any wind, but the influence of her own gravity magic.

"What are you two doing up here?" she asked, giving Salem a hug almost automatically when the porcelain demigoddess opened her arms.

"I was showing Cinder the throne." Both of them looked toward the blank-faced young woman. "You are about to become the latest in a long line of Remnant's last truly magical soldiers." Her brow furrowed hard. "Or so I thought before that bastard from the north appeared."

"Oh, forget him for a minute, he's literally under Ozpin's thumb now." Amber rested her hand on Cinder's shoulder. "We'll have his friends soon enough, I'm sure."

"Hmm. Young Cinder Fall, it is time you understood the Maiden's burden." All three of them began to fly back toward her mansion, but they remained at their current height. "At the beginning of the war before, the God of Light's Aspect asked that four of his most trusted lieutenants be granted the power to help manage his vast armies. He agreed to this and deifacted the original Maidens Four – though not for free. As part of the deal, that Aspect – a man named Ozma – was bound to life forever more. He can only find release when I am beaten. You may know him today as Ozpin, head of Beacon Academy, the latest of his husks."

Cinder absorbed all of this in frigid silence before asking a question. "If you two are enemies, then why are you working together now?"

"Things changed after Matsu," Amber mused, hand on her chin. Salem cleared her throat for attention. "Oh, um, right, you should explain that."

She hovered along, hands clasped behind her back as if walking on solid ground. "For forty thousand years we fought. With our gods, without them, resurfacing portions of this planet with our might on several occasions. Remnant's surface has been reset dozens of times to undo the damage."

"Reset?"

"Yes. When you are a god, restarting a planet is… frighteningly easy." Salem allowed herself a sad smile. "Ozma and I stopped fighting because we grew tired of it. We… we had been in search of a different path for quite some time when Lady Tanager discovered the crystallized residue that men and Faunus now call Dust."

"Lady Tanager was one of the Winter Maidens, by the way," Amber clarified quickly.

"And quite a rebellious soul, not unlike her summer sisters." A newborn Nevermore, barely able to maintain flight, circled around them to investigate their presence. Normally, Amber would have killed it, since it would have been hostile, but in Salem's presence the creature was perfectly meek. It gently tapped her outstretched hand with its beak while making a close pass. "Until that point, the sentient races were scattered, concentrated in their own little enclaves and focused wholly on their own survival. The Faunus owned their sliver of Menagerie. Men huddled in whatever safe corners they could find. Dust… altered their status."

"The world as you see it right now is at peace," Amber said quietly. "I know it doesn't seem like it when you think of the Grimm _,_ but… compared to what used to happen? Yeah. Definitely peaceful."

"Correct. And your job will be to maintain that peace. To do that, we must manage how many people walk Remnant's surface. Every settlement on Remnant exists because I allow it. Right now, four Kingdoms is enough. You will ensure a fifth does not blossom."

"It's not the most wholesome work in the world, but…" Fingers combed awkwardly through her dark brown hair. "It's up to us to keep a bad situation from getting worse."

"Just us?"

"No. Each Kingdom's Army does most of your job for you. You and your sisters constitute a rapid response force. For situations that need an immediate touch without any questions being asked." Salem flicked the Nevermore away after growing bored with it orbiting around them. "The sentient races have their seven crown jewels, toward which they may point as successes of their policies. It keeps most people in line without our needing to lift a finger."

Cinder cocked her head a bit – despite the subtlety of that motion, it was still pronounced enough for Amber to catch it. "Atlas, Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, Patch, Argus, and Kuo Kuana," she said. "They're the answers to almost every question anyone asks about why things are done the way they are. And if people get too bothersome, well, exile is a thing."

"Correct. Our burden is already mostly relieved by their ignorance. For the rest we have His children and their appetites." She brushed aside a lock of snow-white hair. "Ozma refers to it as steering a ship – we use subtle, gentle input to guide Remnant, to keep it on course… to prevent the war before from blossoming again into the war tomorrow."

As she thought on this, Cinder placed a hand on her chin. "If they're fighting the Grimm, they have no time, nor the resources, to fight each other. Therefore, peace."

"Not quite." Salem waited until her daughter-to-be looked over. "Do not think of His children as weapons so much as they are locks on an armory's doors. They offer men an enemy to fight, but they also dull his ability to do so." She placed a hand on Cinder's shoulder. "You'll understand in due time. For now, I believe some exposure is in order. We must prepare you, mind _and_ body, for the ascension ceremony at Maidenfell."

"Um…" Amber said, pointing toward the ground. All three looked down and saw a bluish dot next to a much larger olive-colored something standing near Salem's purple mansion.

The Aspect folded her arms. "If that girl could trade stubbornness for power, she'd lay me low without a second thought."

They descended to examine the fuss. Sure enough, it was the hunched-over, gasping, frail Lapis, in her long, loose, sea-colored dress, next to her attendant – Hazel, who would have dwarfed her even if she could stand up straight. "Flying off without inviting me?" she wheezed, irritated. "Rude."

"You are supposed to be in bed," Salem chided right back before she eyed Hazel for an explanation.

"She was… insistent, ma'am," he said.

"I'm supposed to be getting Cinder ready for the-" Lapis paused here to cough painfully. "Ow."

"A process which involves all of us, don't take it solely on your shoulders." Salem led them all back toward her gigantic home. "Some days I think I need a leash round your neck."

"I'd just bite it off, mom."

"That would not surprise me in the least."

Cinder ignored their banter in favor of thinking on something which had bothered her since she arrived. "Lady Stavros, tell me something."

"Huh?" She coughed again and looked over. "Anything, future me. What's…" More coughing, so powerful she had to stop for a moment to let it pass. Hazel made sure she didn't keel over with one massive hand on her shoulder. "Agh! What's... on your mind?"

"Your disease… what is it?"

The question put frowns on all their faces – except for Hazel, who always seemed to be frowning anyway. "We're not certain," Salem replied at length. "It's the same thing that—never mind."

"Tell her. She needs to know."

The Aspect cast a forlorn gaze toward the red soil and yielded to her broken Summer Maiden a moment later. "It's the same illness which took Chalcedony."

"Lady Branwen's predecessor?" Amber nodded at her in reply. "Does she know this?"

"Of course she does, what kind of operation do you think we're running here?" Lapis quipped between gentle coughs.

"Is it something I can catch?"

Amber squirmed in her brown boots. "If it was infectious, I would have gotten it by now," she said. "I literally do not know the last time Salem has ever gotten sick, so she's probably not a vector for anything either."

"What I would give to sneeze again," she sighed wistfully as they entered the mansion – the same mustachioed doorman who greeted Amber and Raven weeks ago held open the portal for them. "Leave us, please," she said to Hazel with a raise of her hand. "I'm taking my children to the icon."

"Of course," he replied, bowing and stepping away from them.

"Icon?" Cinder asked; the second she looked down at her shoes, there was a circular hole in the floor so deep she couldn't see the bottom, lined with a spiral staircase. "We're walking?" she added, motioning toward Lapis.

"Certainly not." Salem guided her daughters and Cinder onto the steps – which began to move on their own, an escalator loosing the squishy noises of flesh grinding upon flesh as it undulated gently. This organic mechanism drew them into the maw while the Aspect herself floated along down its center, rotating to face them at all times.

Cinder allowed her fingertips to drag lightly along the purple wall, a question in her eyes that needed no asking when Amber saw it. "I can never get used to it either. This stuff is like an extension of Salem's body. I guess, technically, we're all… in her, right now?"

"Must you put things so crudely?" she chided again. "What you see is the will of my father made manifest. A similar substance exists in Lux Impulsum, but Ozma has lost the ability to manipulate it over time."

"Lux Impulsum?"

"The Impact of Light," Lapis said. "This world's counterpart at the North Pole."

"Which would heal you if we could get you there…" Amber added, hiding her eyes so they wouldn't see the tears.

"Why can't you?"

Salem looked just as hopeless as her autumn child. "Men have poisoned Remnant's air beyond her ability to breathe it safely. I fear even brief exposure would prove fatal."

"You could shield her with your power," Cinder stated, unable to restrain her curiosity despite the visible anguish it caused. The way Salem's face twisted told her otherwise. "Can't you? Couldn't you just heal her?"

"Some things are beyond me," she replied, stone-faced, "including things my children take for granted."

She looked back at Lapis, then at Amber, and finally at Salem; none of them provided a further explanation, so she remained silent as well. By now, they were well down beyond the mansion's floor – all light came from the red flame in Amber's hand. The shaft bottomed out at last, leaving them in a tunnel made not of the purple compound, but some gray, lifeless, rocky material instead. After a few steps forward, she suddenly hunched over and braced herself with hands on knees. "I… feel strange," leaked out between breaths, the only way she knew how to label what was currently happening to her Aura.

No one else was in distress, not even Lapis. "She might need this more than I do," was the remark as she waved her stone cane around.

"What… what is…" She could feel her essence sliding around inside, a cat chasing a mouse through her muscle fibers and nervous system. Amber shouldered her weight as they moved toward the far end of the tunnel; each step detached her more and more from her body until it felt like her eyes were cameras recording another person's experience. While the blades of conscious fear were dulled by her injuries, instinctual terror brandished fully-sharpened knives. "Put me… put me down… bad…" she slurred.

"Push through," Salem ordered. "You don't have to endure for long."

"I can't!" escaped her dry lips, the closest thing to a plea she'd made in years. The end of the tunnel was mere steps away; Amber pushed her gently toward it until the influence of whatever laid beyond ripped the thought from her damaged brain. Just before she lost consciousness, Cinder gazed upon a stone monstrosity, hewn from solid magnetite into the many-meters tall form of a woman in a simple, ankle-length dress, with long hair arranged in thirteen curling drills that spread out from the base of her skull like a cloak. Her arms were outstretched too, extended to her sides as if ready for an embrace. For all its detail, she noticed while crumpling to the ground, this masterpiece lacked any kind of face at all, not even depressions where its eyes and mouth would have been. Only a flat, featureless thing existed.

It smiled at her regardless as she fainted, blood trickling from her nose. Amber scooped her up physically, Salem scooped Lapis up magically, and they all retreated back to the safety of the vertical silo. "That went a lot faster than I thought," Lapis admitted after some coughing.

Salem, staring at Cinder's limp – but still breathing – form, had a different assessment. "Quite the contrary. I'm surprised she made it to the threshold at all."

"Is she supposed to be bleeding?" Amber asked. "I don't think Raven bled when she tried this the first time."

The faint scars on her thighs held Salem's eye for a moment before she answered. "Raven is a hard woman. Cinder is something else. I understand why, but she barely reacts to information that would break a normal man."

"Isn't that bad?"

They looked back at Lapis. While Amber's face screwed up a bit, their mother donned an unsettling smile. "Is it ideal? Not at all. This is the best I can do for you now, my child. Forgive me. Besides, I've been thinking… humanity has used machines for a while now. If nothing else," she said, staring at Cinder again, "perhaps I'll end up with one of my own. It might hurt less when she dies."


	26. Loose Ends

Miltia leaned slightly on a simple, slightly-damaged cane as she followed her sister through Mountain Glenn's empty, cracked streets. Sunrise approached from the west, turning the skyscraper skeletons black against the increasing orange glow and casting the same color across the top of the ruined stone buildings directly above them. The twins weren't alone; one more person sauntered alongside, hands in his pockets, grinning against the cold.

"This part of the city has the best residential blocks," Melanie explained to him. "Relatively speaking. They _could_ hold everyone if you're willing to share."

"Oh, I'll be happy to share with you two," Mercury replied. Melanie's glower did nothing to dampen his smirk. "Well, you didn't say no..."

"We're not even going to be here," Miltia finally said. "I think. I'm not sure how many of us are going north."

"I'd rather keep you around." They turned to see Raven arrive, sword sheath bouncing on her left hip with each step she took. Since she was among friends, there was no need to wear her mask. "I need people that know this specific area. Besides, we can help you with your legs, Miltiades."

"Thank you, ma'am," she said, bowing her head.

Mercury saw no need for tact, of course. "Yo, boss. Fight you for the best apartment."

"Don't make me embarrass you in front of the tribe. That's Emerald's job." She stared up at the broken brick facade of one of the buildings. "These things _are_ structurally stable, right?"

"Probably," Melanie replied with a shrug. "None of them have fallen down since we've been here, but…"

"Right. I better see about shoring them up, just in case." She caught a glimpse of a bird perched on a different rooftop, squinted at it, then looked back at them. "Would you three mind heading back to the wall? Vernal is getting on everyone's nerves. Maybe you can settle her down."

"Yeah, yeah." Mercury waved a hand and strolled away – while Melanie followed him, Miltia lingered for a moment.

"Miss Branwen… why is everyone being shuffled around?" she asked quietly.

"'Cause my sisters and I are trying to figure out how to handle the guy that did this to you and your crew." Raven offered her a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Go on. And take it easy."

As Miltia shuffled away to catch up with her sister, the bird flew down and came to a standing rest near Raven's high-heeled boot. A few seconds later, it inflated into Qrow. The two Branwens stared at each other in bitter silence.

"I really don't get you," he finally said. "You're nice to kids that aren't even yours, but-"

"Don't fucking start with me," she said, pointing at him before walking off. "Why are you even here?"

He fell in with her right away. "Come on, big sis, this is the closest we've been to home in years. Maybe I just wanna reminisce."

"Take your nostalgia somewhere else." Her glaring intensified as Qrow continued to walk alongside – thus provoked, she finally let him have it. "I cannot believe you went to him. Are you stupid?"

"I can't believe I _had_ to go to him instead of you."

She abruptly snatched him by the collar with one hand and forced him against the nearest wall. "What was I supposed to do? We haven't been the Duke and Duchess for years."

"And whose fault is that?" Qrow smirked. "You're as dense as lead. You got power now that we _never_ had on Patch."

Her glower deepened. "You're the one that followed me, dumbass. You'd be on the throne now if you weren't so stupid."

"You know why I followed. With you here, now, maybe you've got a chance to undo-"

Now she grabbed him by both hands and shoved him into the wall. "Even if I wanted her back…"

"Aha! So you are thinking about it!"

"Because we're talking about it, you simpleton!" She released him and turned away to stalk off, teeth clenched. "I'm trying to keep us alive, if you haven't noticed. If you're this suicidal, maybe we should go our separate ways."

"Or if I knew a little bit more about the problem, maybe we could put our dumb noggins together and figure out some way to escape." A smile bent his face. "What if we've already done it?"

"There is no way out, Qrow. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Not what, who. The guy's awful strong… so strong he makes Oz nervous." He walked over to his sister again. "I know you know what he did for Ruby and Yang."

Her chest tightened with regret, forcing her to slow her walking pace. "It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it? Raven, we tried – pretty damn hard, by the way – to kill him, but despite that… he helped me when I asked. Opher is a bigger man than Ozpin ever was and you know it. I'm just saying, what if he's an alternative?"

If only it was that simple. She snapped her wide garnet eyes over to him. "Alternative to what?"

"Whatever the hell all of this is," he replied, motioning around at the broken city. "Whatever Ozpin is part of, whoever he answers to. I know you want something better. You could have popped a portal outta there and left us to die. You didn't. There's still a decent person in there, sis. I know it."

Raven's cheeks tinged red for reasons other than the brisk morning wind. "Shut up, you fucking moron."

"That's more like it!" He wrapped an arm around her neck. "Why is the old man so afraid of this guy, huh? I mean, I know what he did to us and all-"

"I wish you'd stop bringing it up!"

"-but to back down like he did… feels like I'm missing something."

"That's not for me to know. Besides, you're lucky Olivine and I weren't asked to beat your ass for the stunt you pulled. Maybe I should anyway." She watched as he stepped away and slapped his chest with an open hand, offering her one free shot. "Don't tempt me."

"Come on, Raven. Just like old times." She wouldn't accept his gift, so he shrugged and fell back in beside her. "I thought agreeing to this would keep them safe. I guess I was wrong."

"Always a sucker for gambling. You should have known better."

"Let's just say I love the long shot."

"Idiot." She covered her mouth, suppressing a coughing fit with her armored forearm.

Worry arrived on his weary face. "Sick?"

"I'm not used to air this clean, I guess." Raven rolled her neck from side to side to work out the stiffness caused by the frigid weather. "As for Yang, that ship has sailed. Drop it."

"Nah. It might have left the harbor, but that doesn't mean it can't come back." Silence from his sister caused a frown. "She looks just like you, you know?"

"I've seen her, you fucking moron."

"Talks just like you, too. Must be genetic."

"Peh." An internal war broke out between Raven and the ancient soul welded to her aching heart, who was now so wordlessly giddy with the idea of a way out of the machine that her vessel could not suppress a gentle smirk. "Why _would_ he help you after all of that? I don't understand."

He prefaced his reply with a weak shrug. "I still ain't sure either. Righteousness? Or maybe he's so damn powerful he can do whatever the hell he wants."

"I'm not sure which is worse." If nothing else, establishing a less belligerent relationship could lead to some juicy, in-demand information – which might get her and her tribe into favor, status which she intended to finagle into a more permanent position away from the desert. Ozpin's wish to use him as his next husk got her thinking again. "I guess I know where to find him, at least."

"Yeah. He patrols with the kids at night now. Try the Emerald Forest after sunset." After a few pats on the shoulder, he took his leave. "I'd better get back to campus. Love ya, sis."

"Yeah. Love you too, I guess." Raven watched him fly away in his crow form until losing sight of him beyond the tops of nearby buildings. She dropped her head to think. "Could he really have..."

_Let's not find out, yes? I'd rather we were on his side than… well, you've seen the alternative._

The plain answer startled her so much that she stumbled backward and nearly fell off the edge of the sidewalk. "You again!"

 _Hey, did you know_ _you've got a Maiden in_ _here_ _?_ _Apparently not._

Raven's face went blank. "D-don't get sarcastic with me, damn it."

 _Hmm._ _I thought I'd try out my conversational skills_ _again._ _Seeing his arm… I guess I got a little nostalgic. I haven't read words like those in a long time._

Her face went blank as she tried to figure out what her Maiden meant. "The… wait, the tattoo?"

_If you want to call them that._

"Uh… right. Hold on—can the others talk to their Maidens like this too?" Raven asked while sitting on a nearby, half-ruined stone bench. "Finally?"

_They always could. I doubt they will._

"Why?" Nothing. She scowled at herself. "Oh, gods damn it…"

_There is still love in your heart. My sisters were not so lucky with their vessels. They are bitter. Even Summer._

"Love?" Raven cast a look up toward the sky as she tried to figure out _what_ love, exactly. She didn't need to think long. "You mean…" Tears began to flow down her pale cheeks. "That's not even close to love."

_The heart is a terrible liar, Raven._

After a gentle groan, she stood up again and watched the sun rise for a few moments, wiping the tears from her face as she tried to collect herself. "I'd ask you what you're thinking, but you probably wouldn't tell me."

_About what?_

She dragged her weary bones toward the tribe's temporary camp near the western city wall. "About anything."

_You wouldn't leave them, would you? He was right._

Her eyes narrowed, then eventually closed for a moment. "No. I couldn't."

_Now you know why I turned off the taps. You're worth saving for a rainy day._

"Whatever," she sighed, completely unsure how to handle the – praise? Validation? – from the Maiden within. "Sounds like something Salem would say."

_Mother is not the woman she once was. I'm doing this as much for her as I am you._

A hand rested on her chest in surprise. "What are you...?"

_Her perspective, as is Father's, is… warped. We have the benefit of lives upon lives to remind us of the true cost of being human and Faunus. They don't. Not anymore._

"Wait, doesn't the old man have to jump like you do?" she asked, coming to a halt in her confusion.

 _No._ _His lives become_ _him_ _._ _Our journeys always belong to us, enshrined in Maidenfell._ _No daughter of the seasons is alike. Not even the twins_ _._

She needed a solid minute or two to process this. "And you think Riese is a better option?"

 _It can't be any worse than this,_ _over and over again, into oblivion_ _._ _Besides, something about him seems familiar._

"Olivine thinks the same thing."

_She should. He… has Scarlet's eyes._

"What the hell does that mean?" No answer; the lights were off, more or less, so Raven got going again after another brief fit of coughing. "Who is Scarlet?" she mumbled. Discouraged by the abrupt emptiness in her head, she wandered onward through the dead city. Things proved much livelier at the campsite. Sure enough, Vernal – borne along on two silver crutches – was overseeing a ruckus whose cause Raven couldn't ascertain.

When she saw Raven approach, the blue-eyed woman turned rather like a tank to greet her. "Yo. The Malachites have something I think you oughta see."

"What?" No answer, so she followed Vernal through the sparse crowd of people all clad in fluffy winter clothing. They pressed on toward the corner of the city wall, which was where Raven had set up the crimson big top for the time being. On its wooden front porch stood Melanie, a white Dust crystal in her hand and little piles of fine Ash around her boots. While she only caught the tail-end of the lecture, it was enough to freeze her blood solid.

"...any crystal, at apparently any distance," she concluded, pointing at the stone in her hand. "Been using it to keep our apartments warm overnight. Works like a charm."

"How the hell do you do this without Aura?" she heard Mercury ask. While Beatrix's crew didn't look surprised, the expressions on her own tribe's faces were best described as utter bewilderment. "I always thought-"

Raven interrupted the lesson by hopping up on the porch as Melanie wiped tears from her eyes. "What's all this?"

"Oh, um, remote priming," Miltia explained as she climbed the steps. "We figured you desert folks could use it to keep yourselves toasty over the winter. It's worked pretty well for us."

The color departed her face. She looked out over the crowd; Mercury caught her eye as he tried the technique, then burst out laughing at its success. Her tribe's expectant mothers and their partners were clustered together, chattering lowly. Purple Malachite gangsters broke her charges off into groups for more focused instruction on Remnant's retort. They all knew now. Her whole family. "Who showed this to you?"

The twins exchanged awkward glances. "Should we…?" Melanie breathed.

"Miss Branwen is the boss now. Yes." Miltia cleared her throat and huddled them together for a more private conference. "It was him. He came back again. Um, peacefully, this time."

Her face went blank. "And you didn't tell Amber? Or Olivine?"

"What good would it have done?" Melanie countered quietly. "He beat up Miss Grace and he beat you up too. Even if we did let you guys know… wouldn't it put you in danger?"

While she appreciated the attempt at protection from a clear threat, Raven also had orders. Specific, clear orders to prevent the spread of what now seemed to infect her whole tribe and Beatrix's: the wrong kind of knowledge. She turned away and gazed hopelessly at the inattentive crowd; Mercury and his amethyst-haired mother, huddled together and fussing over a yellow Dust crystal, received her stare for ages.

_For those who are here._

"For those who aren't," she mumbled, completing her Maiden's thought. "This isn't a good idea," slipped out next, so quiet the wind ate her uncertainty.

_At least it's a fresh one. I helped you build this family from scratch. Now I'm asking you to help me save mine._

Raven couldn't help but feel like a puppet, no matter how much of the spirit's soothing assurances flooded her heart and mind. Grimacing faintly, she yielded. "Fine," she told twins and Spring Maiden both. "We'll keep this one to ourselves for now."

"Ma'am?" Miltia replied uncertainly.

"The whole thing." Raven paused her to slide on her mask again. "The priming. His visit. All of it. _Everyone_ needs to stay quiet though, understand? We'll handle this in-house."

They became stiff in their boots and nodded. "If… if you want, Miss Branwen," Miltia replied.

"Tell your mother I want to see her when she wakes up." Before departing fully, however, she looked back at them over one shoulder. "Why did he come back?"

Melanie tugged at her fur stole, sweating despite the cold. "To ask questions." Her face softened. "And to apologize for what he did. He even made some memorial stuff for us."

The Maiden's reaction was immediate and visceral. _He apologized? After Fall took him? After she tried to kill him? He's the one that's sorry?_

Raven – after a second to recover with her hand on her head – waved both girls toward the flaps of her tent; in her periphery, she saw Vernal hobbling over to investigate. "Come on," she ordered. "You too, Vernal. There's something we need to hear."

* * *

Night two began much as night one did, although there was a twelfth person tagging along on their journey: Coco Adel, hauling Gianduja's case in her left hand. While the color motif of her outfit remained the same, the sweater was gone in favor of a long, warm trenchcoat made of some kind of fuzzy material. She wasn't the only one dressing warmer; rain in the afternoon had given way to clear skies and harsh winds, dropping the air temperature even more. Not a cloud was in sight. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Nora and Pyrrha had to forego their skirts, shorts, and dresses for more practical – if style-consistent – garments, but Indigo and Schwarze's uniforms were warm enough to remain as usual.

Opher stood in defiance of the driving gale; like the soldiers, his outfit was no different than usual – this was partially thanks to Winter sneaking him his personal effects on a cargo flight earlier that day. As they slogged across the saturated, leaf-strewn ground, this evening's lecture was already underway. "Don't think of the Grimm as alive," he stated, hands on the back of his head and eyes closed – dead spots in his titanic Aura helped guide him through the trees. "They're more like machines. The idea is to disrupt them enough to make them break. Detach limbs, stuff like that. Small ones can be put down with enough damage to their center of mass. I mean, big ones can go down like that too, but… there are complications, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"Hold on. So if I could put a bullet into, say, a High Wyvern's core, it… it would die?"

He glanced at Pyrrha. "Fracture, not die, but yeah. If you've got enough explosive power."

"Good luck making that shot," Coco mumbled.

"Doesn't have to be bullets," he advised.

Ruby frantically typed notes into her Scroll. "Wait. Do Grimm have some kinda, I dunno, like, internal control box? A…" She looked up to think and caught a glimpse of something between trunks – a vaguely beastly shape that caused her to jump into Yang's side. "Wh-what was that?"

"What?" Blake looked over – Ruby pointed, but her keen eyesight detected nothing in that direction. "I don't see anything."

"Frick me over a fire pit, not now," she hissed under her breath.

"Again?" her worried sister asked. By now the whole group had come to a halt and was looking their way.

"I don't… I'm not sure. Maybe not." Frustrated, she waved them ahead. "Go! We've got a lot of walking to do."

"Unless he wants to fly again," Indigo said. Opher shook his head at this. "No?"

"I'll fly us back. It's too windy right now." That wasn't the reason, of course; he too detected something not tree-shaped in his Aura field – possibly whatever Ruby had seen, since it was too large to be an animal. It certainly didn't produce the void-like hole a Grimm's presence would. Walking would give it a chance to follow them… and become isolated if they bore ill intent. "Don't worry about getting tired. We can rest at the ruins."

"Too windy?" Nora complained. "Are you serious?"

"Since I'm the airship and the pilot, I determine when it's safe to be airborne. You'll live."

They trudged on collectively, Yang hugging her sister – who, of course, grumbled unhappily in the embrace. Blake broke their awkward silence. "Ah, sir?" she said toward Opher's back.

"Sir? Me?"

"Well, yes… you are… never mind. I had an idea and I wanted your opinion."

"Shoot," he replied, parting some low tree branches with wind Dust and waves of his hand.

"A mobile release ceremony."

Weiss, miserable and silent until now, snapped her eyes over. "What… what are you talking about?"

"Hear me out. There are some things I'm sure we want to get off of our chests, right? Well… out here, the Grimm would be drawn toward us, not the campus. And as good as he is at killing them, then it wouldn't matter how we felt. They…" She had to wrangle with the concept for a moment. "They can't hurt us."

"If you're thinking about what I _think_ you're thinking about, absolutely not!" Weiss countered unhappily. "You heard Miss Goodwitch! It would cause a riot!"

"Twelve people ain't much of a riot," Indigo pointed out. "Besides, we're all adults here, I'm sure we can handle it."

"Um… ma'am?" Jaune piped in. "Pyrrha's the only one of us that's-"

Indigo shifted her massive rifle to the opposite shoulder. "You know what I mean."

"Erm, right. Sorry."

Blake steered them back on topic. "Weiss, we can't hold onto this or it's going to get someone killed!"

"And what if knowing it gets us killed anyway?! We've _already_ been exiled! Technically."

"I think it's a good idea."

Now the whole gaggle turned their eyes to Opher – his back, as he had yet to face them. That only happened after a bit of silence. "It is kind of the whole reason I came up here." He smirked at Schwarze and Indigo. "Okay, most of the reason."

"But what if we're exiled again?" Weiss fired back at him. "We're not on thin ice anymore. There's not even a lake! Just quicksand!"

A silent Coco now realized the subject at hand and suddenly voiced her disapproval. "Is this about—uh, yeah, on second thought? Maybe we _should_ keep a lid on that one. Not really interested in pissing off Ozpin."

"Exactly!"

Blake's emotion continued to intensify; she walked over to argue at close range, gesticulating mildly. "Weiss! We have to work this out!"

She wouldn't yield an inch. "This isn't something we can work out! It's already worked out! All we'd be doing is spreading the baggage around!" The howling of Grimm somewhere in the distant forest shut them up. "Oh… oh no. See what I mean?"

"It doesn't matter," Opher reminded them. The crowd sat on that for a while in silence before he urged them along. "Say what you need to say."

"Okay, maybe not work it out, but let it go at least. Properly." Blake turned away and squinted into the night to make sure they weren't about to be attacked. "I think we're still okay. Besides, it's just an idea."

"Actually..." Schwarze offered a smile when their eyes fell on her. She even waved. "This seems rather serious. If we're going to work together, I'd like to know what's going on."

"That's really not your business," Coco chided from across the way.

"It…" Weiss inhaled a breath to calm herself down. "It might be."

"Why?" Yang asked. "Hell, the less she knows, the less danger she's in. Right?"

"Uh…" Indigo nervously played with her long, thin ponytail while her taller friend looked down. "You sure about this, beanpole?"

"I'm just checking," she replied, hands on her hips. "But we should remain mobile. No point standing around. We've got a long way to go."

"She's right. Let's beat it." Opher took point again as they all got moving. "You know who she is, don't you, Weiss?"

She threw her white ponytail over her shoulder. "Her eyes are the same color as mine and she speaks the old language. She's no pretender."

"Whaaaaa?" Nora looked back and forth between them – no luck seeing their faces with it so dark and their lights all pointed ahead. "What are you talkin' about?"

"Her last name is Voss. You know… Voss?" Pyrrha urged.

"The statue guy?!" Jaune finally exclaimed, motioning at her with both hands. "You're-"

"Hmm hmm." Schwarze strolled along almost casually, hands clasped behind her back. "Back on topic. Who else can offer you a Grimm-free zone? If we're going to do this, now would be the time."

Opher shrugged. "It's their call."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, how did you end up in Vale? In Vale's Army, no less?" Ruby chimed in, happy to have something else to ponder besides the unreliability of her brain.

"That's probably a story for another time." Schwarze tapped Opher on the shoulder. "If nothing else, the relevant parties could have a private discussion. I'm sure you could figure out some way to do that."

"I dunno, man, they were specifically told not to speak about this," Coco said through a frown. "I'm gonna catch hell if I let it happen."

"If these two are gonna come with us every night, then I want the problem handled." He came to a halt and snapped his right arm skyward, invoking the ice Dust in his veins to produce a large wall, taller than the trees, which encircled them without damaging the forest. "If you're in, follow me."

That meant Blake, Weiss, a grumbling Coco, Schwarze, and Indigo – until her friend waved her off. "Why not?" she said, stumbling to a halt under the weight of her rifle. "I have just as much right to know as you do."

"We'll see. Stay." With that, Schwarze took her leave.

Pyrrha, expecting another wall of ice, blinked when Opher walked off without building one. "Ah… won't we overhear them? It's very quiet-"

"I know more than one way to shut someone up," he replied evenly.

They watched them walk off for a moment until Ruby asked, "What does that mean?"

"I don't even want to know," Indigo grumbled in reply. Despite being mere meters apart, however, she couldn't hear a word the other group was saying. "Wait. How in the…"

Nora pointed up at the rustling tree branches directly ahead. "I think he's doing a thing."

Pyrrha's hands went to her hips. "When _isn't_ he doing a thing?"

"Sure seems magical, but… there has to be _some_ explanation for this shit." Yang glanced over and caught her sister eyeballing Indigo's gun. "Hey, sis, it's not polite to stare at someone's equipment, you know?" She smirked a bit when Indigo busted out laughing.

"Shut up, you!"

"Hey, it might be a good time to see if these magnetite shards are messing with our Scrolls."

The sisters fell quiet and looked to Jaune. "You've actually got yours?" Ruby asked at length.

He just shrugged. "I mean, yeah. I need every advantage I can get." With the green stone in one hand and his Scroll in the other, he waved them around each other, eyeballing the screen for any distortion or flickering. "Seems fine to me."

"If there is any advantage," Yang remarked.

"Still not buying it?" Indigo asked over her shoulder.

"I don't know what the fuck to believe at this point. General Zhen told us it hurts your Aura like Grimm exposure, so-"

"Here's a tip, Yang – if Zhen Xuefeng was your only source for that info, I'd keep an open mind." Her ochre eyes became angry slits. "It wouldn't be the first time she's lied about something."

"Um…?" a deeply uncomfortable Ruby muttered.

Yang cocked her head. "You trust him more than an Army General?"

"Damn right I do. _He_ doesn't have the awful family history. Besides, he's saved my life… three times now, technically." She squinted gently at Coco.

Ruby loosed more awkward grumbling, but that was the last word for a while. Unlike his uneasy friends, however, Ren was more focused on the body language of the others than Indigo's words. "They seem… agitated?" he mumbled to Nora.

Especially Schwarze, who loomed over Weiss with clear shock on her face. As they watched, the two remained engaged in conversation for several minutes. More howling arrived. "We really need to get going," a nervous Pyrrha said. "I'll see what the problem is."

Their conversation broke up as she approached, however, leaving a mumbled "I'll call my mother when we're done, I promise," from Weiss as its dying gasp in the cold night air.

"What happened?" Indigo asked her spotter.

"Not now," was the grumpy reply. "Let's just go."

Opher said nothing as he demolished a hole in the ice wall with ruddy ejections of fire Dust from his left hand. They all filed out and back into the forest, single-file, chased by the wind and distant Grimm howls. Ruby tried to get something out of her teammates as they walked. "Guys? Are we good?"

"Not exactly," Blake replied after a moment. "But I think we're heading in the right direction."

A paler-than-usual Weiss stared straight ahead. "If our… problem, was an isolated incident, then mother will know. I'm going to call her when we're done out here."

Yang dropped back a little to walk with her team. "But you're not supposed to-"

"It's fine. This is family." Weiss looked over at Blake. "And in a way, I suppose, it's _for_ family."

"That's good!" Ruby chirped. "Hey, um, was Miss Voss mad at you or something? She…" All four girls were startled by the silent, sudden arrival of Schwarze herself, who fell in beside Weiss. "Wh-whoa! Hello!"

"My ears are burning," she sung through a smile. "No, I wasn't angry. And you _can_ call me Schwarze, you know." She playfully ruffled Weiss' snowy hair. "Especially you… cousin."

"Excuse me, _what_?" Yang blurted out.

"Our two bloodlines don't just have a business relationship," Weiss explained while trying to fix her hair. "What did you expect? Her family found Dust. My family helped them distribute it. There were... marriages."

"Some of which happened quite recently." Schwarze tapped her chin in thought. "Never mind that. I've just heard some awfully troubling things-"

"Sure wish you'd tell me!" Indigo shouted back at her.

"Later, sweetheart, I promise!" she called in reply. Her voice softened again. "I need answers and I'm willing to trust Willow Schnee. Weiss might be the only chance I have to figure out if any of _my_ relatives were involved. I had no idea this was going on."

As they spoke, Blake used her keen eyes to search the darkness for monsters. None were visible so far. "Yeah, so it was Miss—erm, Schwarze's idea to bring it up to Weiss' mom. If anyone has the power to give us the complete story, it's her."

"What about your dad?"

Weiss squinted so hard at Ruby that she shrank away and emitted a squeak. "Sorry. I don't—I'm not sure I can trust him to be honest with me, that's all. Mother, though… mother would never lie."

"We're getting too strung out!" Opher called back to them; he'd ended up being the tip of the spear again. "Bunch back up."

"Come on, come on," Coco added. She, along with Indigo, herded them like antsy cats back into a nice secure bubble of humanity. "That's better. What's got you so nervous, punchy boy?"

He subtly adjusted the breeze again to keep their conversation private. "We're being followed." All sorts of weapons were brandished or unfurled behind him. "And before you ask, I can feel the distortion in my Aura."

"How fucking big is your-"

"Forget that," Nora cut in, shutting Indigo up. Grenades went into her weapon. "Followed by what? How many?"

Eyes closed, he sampled the gap in his essence like a glass of wine. "Just one. Not Grimm, either."

"That's even worse!" Ruby hissed through clenched teeth, glancing around.

"Wait, it might be Uncle Qrow. I know he's gotta be worried about us."

"Yang, if that's true, wouldn't he just… be here? With us?" Pyrrha replied, her weapon in rifle form.

"Uhhhhh…" She scratched at her golden locks before finally choosing to fetch shells from her belt pouches to feed her gauntlets. "Fuck."

As they spoke, Indigo fiddled with the communications equipment on her collarbone. "Haynes, this is 1SG Stahl. Where did the Lieutenant send section two tonight?"

The reply was a bit crackly, but audible. "South gate, ma'am, one kilo perimeter sweep. We just left campus."

"Copy, thank you." She made a face at them. "Well, it ain't our guys either..."

"Do we respond?" Schwarze asked.

Opher continued to digest the situation. No magic registered; if it was Qrow, he wasn't in his bird form, but the distortion seemed too small for the old Huntsman's lanky frame. "Let them tail us. If worse comes to worse, I think the twelve of us combined have enough talent to handle one person."

"Gods damn it," Coco mumbled, "I signed up for Grimm-killing lessons, not whatever this is."

That caused Opher to smirk. "I know the feeling."

No fight would arrive. Their pursuer wasn't either Branwen, but Ilia, clad in her special bodysuit and hiding behind a tree trunk. She'd already given up the chase – the way they'd drawn their weapons put her off right quick. She had to assume it was her fault – though how she'd been detected at all baffled her – so she bowed out to avoid drawing Grimm toward Blake. While she was equally confused by her inability to hear them speak or walk, those questions would keep; for now, Ilia needed to get back to campus before…

"Where are you?"

She winced. That was Ciel, grumpily discharging the question directly into Ilia's brain via the tiny earpiece safely tucked away in her right ear. "I'm surprised this thing gets a signal out here," she replied, throat microphone allowing her to keep her voice low.

"Out where?!"

Ilia didn't answer right away in the interests of covering some ground first. Thankfully, the terrain was relatively flat and free of water features. "I was just… keeping an eye on Blake for a minute," she finally replied while figuring out how to quietly ford the stream in front of her. "I don't know how much I trust Weiss or that guy-"

"You can stalk her on campus. Get back to the south gate and find the other patrol."

"I'm not-" Ilia's brow furrowed with annoyance. "Never mind. Fine. I'm on my way." Clouds of breath leaked out through her fabric mask as she got going again.

A dim flash of unusual color in her periphery caused her to come to an unceremonious halt; it wasn't the dull brown of tree trunk or forest rodent, which she could discern with her above-average night vision, but a light green that didn't fit what plant life was hardy enough to maintain foliage at this time of year. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't a Grimm. Too curious to let it go, she went full stealth – her skin and hair turned muted brown, as did the suit, leaving her silhouette about the same hue as the trees. Instead of walking back toward the mystery, she climbed a tree and jumped to another, grabbing their trunks on impact to lessen the noise. A few moments of tree-hopping later brought Ilia in contact with what she'd seen, though several meters away.

Someone with mint green hair, in a dark-colored hoodie, who seemed to be headed the same direction as Blake and the others.

"Who the…" Ilia breathed to herself. Keen to keep her own presence quiet, she carefully snapped a picture of the stranger with her Scroll. The urge to pursue was intense, but the risk of blowing her cover – and putting Blake in additional danger – made the idea unpalatable. She took her leave, stalking off through the woods and hoping Blake's company knew what they were doing.

* * *

Snowflakes wafted through the frigid, late-morning air beyond panes of glass, but all she could see was the reflection of her own face. Like her daughters, she bore white hair in a loose ponytail piled on her left collarbone, though her locks were tinged silver with the march of time; its footsteps dragged faint lines across her fair skin beneath sapphire blue eyes. Her lips were bent in a permanent, if gentle, scowl. While she'd forgone her usual long-tailed waistcoat, the frilled, high-collar, white long-sleeved blouse she so often paired it with was present, decorated over her throat by a massive, nearly-priceless cabochon ruby framed in silver metal. A long, dark gray skirt hung off her hips. She didn't even look over when another person arrived to view the snowfall – a stout, balding man with caramel hair and a fluffy mustache, dressed smartly in gray slacks, a matching vest with ornate, silvery filigree trim, a white collared shirt, and a necktie which gleamed Schnee blue even in the cloudy pall. His brown eyes glittered with concern.

"Early start to winter this year," he commented, hands clasped behind his back.

"For some of us it never ends." She'd don a smile for him, sad as it might look. "Busy day, Klein?"

"As ever, Mistress Willow. Your husband seems keen on entertaining General Ironwood this weekend. I thought I'd let you know before he comes calling with questions about appetizers and the appropriate liquor to pair with same."

"Again? How much Dust is he trying to sell to that man?" A sigh left her nose; they turned away from the window and began walking down the huge, dimly-lit, carpeted corridor. Its white walls were replete with expensive artwork and photographs – the latter were mostly pictures of the extended and gigantic Schnee family, with more than a few raven-haired Voss clan members in the mix. "I know Ironwood is important, but a party every time he knocks on the front door seems excessive, even for us."

"We both know how much of a spectacle Jacques likes to produce, madam, even for one man."

"That we do." The smile was already gone. "Always angling for the next sale."

He cleared his throat. "If I may, you seem troubled by something."

Willow allowed herself a pained smirk. "There are times when I don't seem troubled?"

Klein shook his head. "Madam, you very well know what I mean."

She let her head hang a bit, only admitting why after a moment or two. "The house is too empty with my snowflakes gone. Winter… Weiss. Even when she calls it just doesn't seem like enough. And Winter—I can only hope she's not lost to me forever."

"I am certain none of her anger was ever reserved for you, ma'am. One day, she'll tell you that herself. I'm sure of it." They came to a stop as Willow's Scroll began to ring. The look on her face when she who was calling caused his to twist with worry. "Madam?"

"Weiss!" she gasped into the Scroll. "We… we were just talking about you."

"Mother!" came her voice through the speakers. "We? Who's with you? You don't sound so well."

"Miss Schnee! Hello! It's nice to hear your voice again," he greeted through a smile. "And I am keeping an eye on her, I assure you."

"Oh, Klein, thank you. Mother… I… I need to talk to you. It's important. Please sit down."

"Sit down?" Fortunately, there was a couch nearby for her to occupy while Klein excused himself to a polite distance to give her some privacy. "Weiss, what's going on?"

"How in the world can I put this gently, ah, oh no… Professor Ozpin attempted to exile my whole team. Including me."

" _What_?!" Willow shrieked, so loud that Klein nearly tripped over himself while turning around to investigate. "Where are you?! Are you all right?"

"Yes, mother, I'm fine. Actually, I'm still on Beacon's campus. Ozpin sort of rescinded the order, in a way. He, well… he was kind of forced to let us stay."

She sat down again – mostly to avoid fainting – and stared blankly across the wide hallway. "By whom?"

"It's not impor-" A loud burst of static clawed at her ears – Weiss' too, given her next words. "Ow! This useless tower! Oh, sorry. I heard something very distressing yesterday and you're the only one that can help us figure it out, I think."

"Anything," she said quickly. "Whatever you need from me, just ask."

"I met a girl here named-"

Her voice was suddenly gone. Willow stared at the golden Scroll to investigate why just before she was able to hear Weiss again. "What happened? You dropped out."

"What? I can barely hear you," was the reply. "Mother? Are you still there?"

"Weiss? Weiss!" she called, moving to the window to see if that would help clear up the call. "Can you hear me?"

"Barely. Something awful happened to-" Again, Weiss' words got eaten for a moment. "-in Mistral. I need to know if it's really over, like Miss Goodwitch says. Did you get her name?"

"No, I didn't—why does your voice keep dropping out?"

"It is? Velvet-" There it went again. "I don't know how to spell her last name. Mother? Hello?"

"Weiss?" The call finally, completely, died. Willow stared at the device helplessly as Klein walked back over. Not even an attempted redial could get Weiss back. "Damn it…"

"Madam, what's going on?"

"Weiss… Weiss was exiled."

Now it was Klein's turn to feel lightheaded. "I beg your pardon?!" he blurted out, a hand on his head.

"She was, but she wasn't. Someone intervened." The racing of her mind drove her legs into motion; Willow traced quick circles around the wide corridor as she tried to think.

Klein gave chase. "You're going to call Ozpin to clear this up, I assume?"

"I'm not sure I can, the connection was awful. I need to-" Her blue eyes widened with an idea. Even if she did call, how far would she get? There was someone close by, however, with the right power to get answers – and, she'd learned over time, something of a disdain for the old man in Beacon Tower. "Call the hangar, Klein. Tell them I'm on my way."

"Yes ma'am." Out came his Scroll. "Shall I advise them of your destination?"

She snapped her eyes back at him only briefly as she walked quickly away. "Atlas Academy."

* * *

The report in his hands was, at best, technical and obtuse, even for someone of his acumen. Fortunately, James Ironwood had the author in person to help clarify things. "Lieutenant Reiher, if you could condense this into something I'll need less than a day to understand? I do have a faculty meeting in an hour."

"Someone got carried away again, sir," Caroline said with a roll of her brown eyes.

"N-not necessarily, ma'am." Reiher adjusted his glasses with a frown. "Datasets eight and nine featured a marked increase in encrypted traffic over Beacon Tower. Not the usual Valesian Armed Forces stacked ciphers." He bent over the General's desk to point out the relevant areas in writing. "This, and… this here, sir. She passed along the coded strings wholesale and, well…"

"General, we need specialized code-breakers that I don't have."

He looked up at the Colonel. "What do you think is in these messages?"

Caroline only shrugged at first. "I couldn't say, sir. I do know that in addition to whatever this is, Valesian Army CCT Tower time has increased quite a bit."

"Because of the deployment to campus?"

Reiher corrected him. "No, sir. This was before and unrelated. Dataset nine is loaded with traffic about the incident at the-"

James had already read and processed most of the abstract for Penny's ninth call home. "Yes, the refinery, I know," he said, tapping a finger on his desk. "The investigation is one reason he's not here, now, teaching us all kinds of fun things." He loosed a quiet chuckle. "What a mess. They can't get rid of him, but they can't keep him around either. Not with what he seems to be capable of. If I know Army General du Pont, she must be losing her mind."

"Why would they want to get rid of him, sir?"

Caroline and James looked toward the naive junior officer before the latter explained. "If the Kingdom knew… they might start placing their trust in him instead. The man solves problems."

The Colonel stroked her chin in thought. "They're afraid of him. He came out of nowhere."

"Fear? Maybe. They certainly lack the creativity to use him," James said, waving at Caroline as he stood up. Hands clasped behind his back, he stared out one of the tall windows at the city beyond his campus. Wind-driven snowflakes lashed past his sight. "We don't have that problem. His knowledge is going to help liberate Solitas whether he realizes it or not. Then the rest of the world." Slightly awkward silence caused a tiny grin. "Archive the encrypted data for now, Colonel. I'll make some calls. Tell Penny to keep collecting whatever she can. Start tucking her traffic into packets along with civilian transmissions. I want a steadier flow of data. If you get any indication of more network interference, revert to the intermittent packages."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. No concerns about her cover so far, I assume?"

Caroline folded her arms. "So long as the lizard girl keeps her mouth shut…"

James peered at over her his shoulder, blue eyes narrowed slightly. "She has a name, Colonel."

While she resumed parade rest out of respect, she didn't exactly back down. "I mean no disrespect, but I've been focused on operational security my whole career, sir. She's the weakest link in that team."

"Your assessment is noted." James collected the paperwork on his desk, then put it away in a safe housed on one of the bookshelves. "Dismissed. Let me know if anything else comes up."

They exchanged salutes. Just after his subordinates left, but just before he could settle back in for the next task in his loaded schedule, the voice of the receptionist downstairs came through the intercom on his desk. "Ah, sir? I'm sorry to bother you, but…"

"You're the least bothersome person on this whole campus, Miss Harling. What's going on? If something else is on fire, I think it's Major Grayson's turn to put it out."

"Oh, no sir, it's just that you have another visitor. Willow Schnee."

His face twisted with confusion. "Willow?" he mumbled lowly. Was she here because of Jacques' invitation? That, he decided, seemed unlikely, which left him with no other reason for a visit. "Really? Send her up, I've got a few minutes." It didn't take long for the breathless Schnee matriarch to push open the heavy office door and stumble gracefully inside. He stood up again to greet her. "Good morning, Mrs. Schnee. I hope Jacques didn't send you here in a snowstorm just to convince me to show up at the estate this weekend?"

"It's…" Willow had to stoop to catch her breath. "It's about Weiss."

That did nothing to alleviate his confusion. "Weiss?" he repeated, motioning for her to take a seat. "I assume she's taken Beacon by storm. I would have loved to have her here."

Her face said it all, but she spoke anyway. "Not… exactly. I think she's run into some kind of trouble. Do you know what Beacon's exile policy is, exactly?"

Uncertainty yielded to surprise. His blue eyes widened a bit. "I can find out, sure, but why do you ask?"

"Weiss says Professor Ozpin attempted to kick her out. Have you—did he tell you, by chance? Perhaps mention why?"

 _Attempted?_ James watched her squirm on the couch; the terror was clear despite all of the layers of refined, proper grace it had to filter through. "First I've heard of it, ma'am. Who told you?"

"Ah, well? Weiss did. Not an hour ago. The connection was awful, so I didn't get much information, but-" Her eyes lit up. "She said someone intervened to save her, that must have been you!"

He shook his head. "Ma'am, I report to him on Academy affairs. Either way, we don't get involved in ejections beyond our own campuses, that's up to each Headmaster or Headmistress. And as I've said, this is the first I've heard about the situation." That included from the prodigal Schnee daughter he'd sent to Vale – no wonder she suddenly wanted an airship to Beacon. But if Winter hadn't flown out to save her little sister – and he _would_ have heard about such a spectacle by now – James had to wonder who did. "What did you mean by attempted? Did someone change his mind?"

"Yes, but she didn't say who." Willow wrung her hands in her lap. "No, wait, she said he was forced to let them stay."

That got his complete attention. "Forced?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair. That statement narrowed down the possible interlopers drastically; beyond the Queen of Vale herself, plus a few high-ranking officers in the armed forces, he couldn't figure out who else had the power – or the spine – to stand up to Ozpin on internal Academy affairs like this.

"I just wanted to ask you if you could perhaps give him a call. To clear the situation up. You might have better luck with this tower than I did below."

Willow's request snapped him back into focus. He glanced outside at the taps of wind-driven ice and snow against the window panes. "I can try. If you'll wait in the hall for moment, please?"

Her eyes grew wide. "W-why can't I stay here?"

"Security reasons. Dry stuff, really boring. Besides, I don't want you to hear only half the conversation and worry even more than you already are." James urged her to stand, then walked her slowly to the door. "I'm sure this is all just some kind of misunderstanding."

"But…" She deflated with resignation a few steps out into the hallway. "Very well." Before she left to find a seat, however, she turned around to say, "I think someone named Velvet might have something to do with it, if that helps."

"Velvet? Right. I'll ask him." James flashed a smile, shut the door, then moved quickly back to his desk. A few taps at the device connected his hard-line, internal network to the public CCT system. A few more taps placed a priority call across those airwaves.

Seconds later, he got his answer. "General Ironwood," Ozpin greeted evenly. "Is this a Harmony Day miracle come three months early? I haven't heard from you in a while."

"I'm sure you've got far more entertaining company to help you pass your time, Professor."

"Glynda's sense of humor leaves something to be desired. What can I help you with, General, because I'm sure you didn't call to chat."

"You're right." He clasped his hands on the desktop and twisted the one screw left that would give him some kind of sway. "Why does Weiss Schnee know Velvet Scarlatina's name?"

"The situation has been handled," was the eventual reply. "Glynda provided the cover story."

James' eyes narrowed. "You call this handled? Now Willow Schnee knows it too. What happened to White Rabbit?"

"I could not maintain the full protocol and guarantee reliable communications for the Valesian Army detachment sent to Beacon. Not with the additional traffic coming from Haven's transfer students."

Grumbling, he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "I swear to the gods I will pay for a CCT upgrade out of my own pocket. This is ridiculous."

"An offer I've made to Queen Siofra a dozen times myself. At any rate, she's unwilling to take the old system offline until we can find and hold another area of the Emerald Forest at this altitude."

He couldn't blame Vale's Crown for wanting to avoid a new Mountain Glenn, but James still mumbled with frustration. "I think it's best if we transfer her to Atlas."

"Where she'd be surrounded by the Schnee machine? No. The poor girl would die of fright."

Stung by the not-wholly-unexpected denial, he tapped quietly at the wooden desktop. "You tried to exile Weiss?" he asked. "That's what I heard from her mother. Did Velvet have something to do with it?"

"Partially. Her whole team is a threat and Grimm numbers are high this year. I made the decision to-"

"Team?" That included Blake. "Ozpin… do they know?"

"Blake Belladonna does."

He stood up with surprise. "I meant her _parents_ -"

"Glynda's been approving her outgoing messages personally. Besides, I think we'd have heard some rumblings from Kuo Kuana by now."

A sigh escaped as he sat down. "I'm a little confused about why Weiss is still at Beacon. Did Jacques speak with the Queen? Someone from the command staff?"

"The Schnee family has – had – no idea."

"Then…" His face went blank. "Then what happened?"

"Don't trouble yourself with my affairs, General, you apparently have enough on your plate." Ozpin abruptly switched gears. "If you're trying to convince me to let you recall Schnee to Atlas, I think we both know that's not a good idea. Not now."

"No, there's no point. Do what you have to." That was the end of the conversation. James stared at his Scroll for a moment, more focused on figuring out who had made Ozpin back down than trying to help Weiss – she was a lost cause anyway. Part of him almost felt sympathy for the old man; what would he do with Blake? "Good luck untangling that mess."

He fired off a text to Caroline in search of details about Winter's requisition. _I need to know what was in the asset's cargo flight._

Agonizing moments later, his answer arrived. _Our mutual friend_ _._

Opher, then, no doubt about it. He had the time frame for this mess, but if he were to put two and two together, it still wouldn't equal four. Not here. No way that man had the power to… did he? Unless Ozpin knew the same things James himself did – perhaps the old man was now in a similar situation as Vale's government. James brought up their files on his computer. Ruby's team. Pyrrha's team. Their faces. Her silver eyes. Then Opher, Indigo, Schwarze. What was he missing?

Caroline chimed in again. _She reports he's staying on campus, by the way. Beacon's patrol traffic indicates a 99% reduction in Grimm encounters since he arrived._

That number startled him almost as much as the knocking on his door. Willow opened and peeked around it. "I cannot just sit here and—oh, you're finished?" She invited herself inside.

"I am. It's not good news. Seems like your daughter's whole team has gotten themselves in some kind of trouble. Vale's expulsion protocol is a lot harsher than ours."

Willow braced herself on the front of the desk. "I'll fly down and bring her home myself."

James clasped his hands with a sigh. "They won't let you. You know the rules. No exceptions."

"So he doesn't want her there, but he won't let her leave?! What is she supposed to do, then?! I've already lost—I won't let something happen to Weiss too." Willow was off, storming for the exit.

Before she could leave, however, a button press closed the heavy door in front of her. She whirled on him angrily; he met her wrath with an upraised hand on his way over. "That's not exactly what's going on. Ozpin wants her out, but someone else doesn't. Let me try to figure out why she's in limbo first. Right now, she's safe."

"Is she?" Willow hissed.

He guided her away with a hand on the shoulder, speaking lowly. "As safe as she's going to be right now, I'm afraid. We'll have to trust this other party."

"Who is it?"

"I don't know either, which is why I'm asking you to let me handle it for now, please."

Willow stared up at him until she produced her Scroll and tapped a few times to redial her youngest daughter. James didn't try to stop her; he didn't need to. The call rang endlessly until she finally gave up and put the device away. "Gods damn it…"

He shrugged at her frustrations. "Even with our high-power transmitter, sometimes I have trouble getting through. Your family will be the first to know anything I find out. I promise."

Wilted by her helplessness, the empty-eyed Willow shrugged away from him and turned for the door. "Have you… do you know if Winter is doing all right?"

He donned a warm – if slightly hollow – smile. "I've been in touch with her CO from time to time. She's fine. I'll let her know you asked about her."

"Thank you, General. Perhaps I'll see you at the estate." Willow shuffled out at last.

He strode to the desk and brought the files back into view. If Weiss and Blake were aware, he had to assume everyone on his screen was too. He began calculating the collateral damage. Ruby and Yang were meaningless to him. Jaune, Ren, and Nora fell into that category, as did Indigo. Pyrrha, Schwarze and Weiss were a pricklier bramble, but Blake was his top priority for now.

He met Opher's dead-eyed gaze last. Everyone else would be easy enough to shut up, but James ruminated on what it would cost to silence someone like him. Violence might not be the answer. "Damn. Another red bird."

One more message for the Colonel. _We have a problem. Instruct her to get as much_ _information_ _from our mutual friend as she can._ _Be ready to extract_ _both assets._


	27. In For a Pound

Yang could barely keep herself upright; bent by exhaustion, she leaned against one wall of the elevator as it ascended through Beacon Tower's central core toward her final task of the morning. Her usually-unruly hair was even more frazzled than normal; her long pants had a few subtle rips from the night's activities as well. Sweat gleamed on her forehead despite the chill outside.

The doors slid open to Ozpin's office, where he and Glynda awaited near his huge steel desk. "Yo," she groaned. "I've got it."

"You look rough," Glynda commented as the blonde fell into the nearest chair.

"Man, he's relentless. I think we trained for six solid hours last night." She produced her Scroll and dropped it on the desk. "There it is."

"Thank you." A little deft tapping allowed him to access the data on her device. "Anything unusual to report?"

"There might have been someone following us. We never saw anybody, though."

"Following?" A surprised Glynda looked to Ozpin. "The Army?"

Yang draped one leg over the arm of the chair in search of some kind of comfort, eyes closed against the harsh morning sunlight. "If it was, it wasn't the guys on patrol. Miss Stahl checked."

"We can ill afford more mysteries right now." Ozpin successfully pulled the audio file from her Scroll and flicked the device back into her lap, startling her. "I'll ask Lieutenant Vespa. Might I get a preview of last night's lecture?"

"Huh? Oh, mostly Grimm formations. Like, I thought they just swarmed at random, but he showed us all kinds of things." A rude, lengthy yawn slipped out.

His brown eyes narrowed vaguely. "The man certainly is a wealth of combat knowledge. I won't keep you, Miss Xiao Long. You may go. And thank you again for keeping up your end of the deal."

"Hey, I did say I'd do anything." Yang slumped out of the chair and onto her shaky legs. "Oh, gods… I'm gonna sleep well tonight," she mumbled on her way to the elevator. "Today. Whatever. Fuck." On the way there, however, she stopped to look at Ozpin. "How many of these do you want before Ruby gets an exam-"

"That depends more on the content than anything, Miss Xiao Long. Now please take your leave."

So she did, glowering quietly all the way. Once she was gone, Glynda crossed her arms and stared at the old man. "I don't think we need to hold anything over her head, Professor."

"You see threats. I see charity." He stared at the length of the audio recording. "She wasn't lying, I see. I suppose my schedule is absorbed until lunch."

"You're treating it like it isn't mandatory listening."

"I'm not downplaying the significance, Glynda. Magic… magnetite. Weak points for Grimm I'd never even conceived." he mused, feigning maximum ignorance for her sake. "Although I have other concerns. If someone was following them – or him – last night… hmm. What if it's related to the kidnapping attempt?"

"That's why we have the Army now, isn't it?" Glynda walked away to take a peek down at the campus below, where a few early risers were already wandering about on the walkways. "Then again, if he teaches all of our students, we won't need the Army. I think we should bring him on board. Full time."

"And attract more trouble from whoever is after him?"

"I think the deterrence factor of having several hundred fully-capable fighters would prevent that, don't you?" No answer; Glynda looked over her shoulder at him. "Why are you so reluctant about this?"

"Everything comes with a cost. I'd like to see that price tag first." A bit of a staring match broke out, but she never pressed the issue into an argument and instead chose to take her leave. "Not going to listen along?"

"Later. I have some things to do with the CCT staff shortly." The doors slid shut and she was on her way back to her own office, tapping out a message on her Scroll during the journey.

A few minutes after she got settled into her chair, the recipient of said message's voice came from the speaker on her desktop: Coco. "I guess I know what this is about."

"You're correct. Come on up."

Shortly afterward, the elevator doors opened and disgorged a Coco who was in much better shape than Yang, coffee trenchcoat and all, though she lacked her weapon case. She sauntered easily across the hard floor. "Any luck with the old man?"

Glynda cleaned her glasses while responding. "No. He's still hesitant." She watched as Coco set down a small black box on the desk. "I hope the recording quality is better than your previous attempt."

"Should be. We weren't _as_ afraid this time." A few moments of silence passed while Glynda pulled the video file onto her computer. While she waited, Coco got up again to grab a bottle of liquor from the cabinet hidden in one of the curved bookshelves that ran along the wall behind the desk.

"Don't drink all of it," she advised while scrubbing through the video just to get a glimpse of the night's action.

"One glass. Velvet hates the smell." Once she had her shotglass of spirits, Coco shed her sunglasses and sat back down. "Speaking of which… I brought her back a piece of the magnetite."

"Hmm."

"Did you float the teacher idea?"

"Yes. He denied it."

Coco's eyes became slits. "I'm getting real fucking tired of this, you know? If we..." Those orbs dulled with sadness as she swallowed her memories. "How many people would be alive right now if they knew what he knows?"

"Too many." Glynda slumped back in her chair and stared at the white stone ceiling. "I get the feeling he's annoyed that someone finally stood up to him about something. Are you going back out tonight?"

"Yeah."

"I have an idea." She leaned forward and braced herself on the desk. "Spread the word. I'm going to force Ozpin's hand. I want as many students as possible to learn these lessons."

Coco perked up a bit in the chair. "Gotcha. I'll tell Argent. She'll tell the upper classes. I'm sure some of 'em are friends with the Haven transfers by now." Her face softened with thought. "Is this gonna get us in trouble?"

"You let me worry about that." Glynda used her Semblance to pour a glass of whiskey for herself. "If the Queen won't help us… if the Army won't help us… we'll help ourselves."

"Real Huntsmen and Huntresses, eh? Why not. I'll drink to that." They tapped glasses. "All right. I've got a little time before Vel wakes up. How about some commentary?"

"Certainly. We'll begin from the beginning."

* * *

Ciel stared at Ilia's picture of the mint-haired stranger; all three girls were in their dorm room as the dusk encroached upon Beacon's chilly campus. She and Penny were stood in the center of the room between the bunk beds. "It's been almost a whole day," Ilia remarked grumpily. "They're going out soon. We can't wait anymore."

"Ilia, please," she mumbled, scratching at the cross-shaped cluster of small gold gemstones adhered to her dark forehead. She looked over at the android. "They need time to figure this out. We sent them the picture. That's all we can do. Penny? Any messages from home?"

"Scanning!" she replied cheerfully. Her head tilted back and forth as she sought better reception to tap network access points. "None. I am sorry."

Growling, Ilia traced a slow, uneasy orbit around their quarters, arms loosely folded. "I wish I got a better photo… ugh. I can't figure out who else might want to spy on them. Ozpin, maybe?"

"I don't know," Ciel replied. "I don't even know who to ask without risking our cover. That has to take priority."

"Let me escort them, then. I'll find out myself."

"I…" She folded her gloved arms loosely. "I don't have that authority. Whatever orders the Colonel passes down are what we have to go with."

"Damn it…" Having struck out with the mechanic, Ilia turned her pleas toward the android. "Penny, isn't there _any_ work you could do on the picture yourself? Enhance it? Anything."

She rocked back and forth on her heels. "I do not contain image processing hardware or software. I can only work with my raw sensor data. I am sorry." So sorry that she even bowed her head, which caused her bow to tilt out of place briefly.

Ilia growled and began stalking around the room once more, measuring her breaths to avoid getting _too_ frustrated. She stopped when Penny suddenly went stiff. "Eh? What?"

"Incoming!" After some bow adjustments, Penny found herself downloading – well, _something_ , whose contents she only knew once the process was complete. It was an enhancement of Ilia's photo, made much clearer, plus a message from Cordovin. "The man upstairs wants to know who this might be."

Ilia played with her curly ponytail. "He isn't the only one. What should we do?"

"Please stand by." Penny tilted her head to and fro while tapping access points for data. "I will run this new image against the entries in Beacon's database."

This process took a while – too long for the antsy Ilia's tastes, so back to pacing she went. Ciel placed a hand on Penny's forehead to make sure she wasn't overheating. "Staying cool?" she asked.

"Heat load normal." Her pupils contracted unevenly. "Oh. Possible match found." This she displayed via her Scroll, which popped out from under the cuff of her left sleeve.

Emerald's picture, plus her information as the Beacon database understood it. "Sustrai, Emerald. Incoming from Shade Academy. It seems like she got here the same day you did, Ilia."

"Definitely looks like her hair… never saw the face, though. I can't tell if this is her." Ilia squinted at the photo. "Same day as me, huh? She wasn't on my airship."

"Shade…" Ciel's eyes went glassy with thought. "Penny, that's Headmistress Spaatz, right?"

"Yes! Spaatz, Alice. Mother of Meredith Spaatz, Headmistress of Signal Academy."

"Why does that matter?" Ilia asked as she broke away from staring at the photo.

Ciel's furrowed-brow thinking caused Penny to smile. "Due diligence, yes? As Ciel would say, not everyone you meet is your friend."

"I don't _think_ Vacuo is in on this. Weird. Whatever is going on might be way over our heads." Ciel rubbed her eyes when the android looked up. "Not literally, Penny..."

Her iron smile never wavered. "I know. I shall send the match back home."

"What do we do until then?" Ilia asked. "They're going out soon and _something_ is wrong here. It's already late in Atlas, right? I don't think we can wait for dawn."

"You mean _you_ can't wait," Ciel corrected, a bit more grumpily than she intended. "Why are you so on edge lately? What happened?"

Ilia stared her down, still unwilling to divulge what she'd heard Weiss say that evening – she had no idea what spreading it might do, especially if it got back to Sienna or somehow made it all the way to the southern island. She turned her faith into feigned distrust to reply, swallowing Weiss' name completely in the bargain. "I don't trust the guy in the hat. Now there's someone else out there spying on them? If anything happens to Blake, then-"

The conversation became a calm standoff at somewhat close range. "I get that, but I'm here to support Penny and you're here to gather intelligence. Don't forget."

"Then let me go _gather some intelligence_ ," she countered, sweeping an arm toward the door. "I thought I was the only who was gonna be sneaking around in the woods."

"I want clearance from above."

"That could take hours!"

Penny, dutifully following the conversation as an enraptured crowd might follow a tennis rally, finally chimed in with some surprising news. "I believe the Colonel might be working late. I already have an answer."

Ciel looked at her first. "What did she say?"

"Something seems to have changed..." A contemplative Penny walked over and hugged their shoulders, turning the showdown into a huddle. "We will go out with them tonight."

Those aqua eyes got a little wider. "To do what?"

"To learn from Opher. The man upstairs wants as much information as we can get on his combat techniques. Since he stays here now, that is sort of the only option we have." Penny then smiled at Ilia. "While we are there, we will keep an eye out for the other observer."

Ilia's caramel face softened with relief. "I'll go get my whip. How are we gonna do this?"

Ciel's eyes narrowed as she worked to formulate a plan. "Penny and I will tell them you're sick and stick with the group. You tail us at a distance and sweep for anyone that's not supposed to be out there. If we catch them…" Her face went blank. "What kind of authorization do we have, Penny?"

Her voice got low. "The Captain is ready to extract anyone we might capture."

"Capture?" Ilia's eyes widened as her adrenaline began to spike. "Should I wear my suit?"

"No. If something goes wrong, we'll have enough questions to answer. Leave it in the closet." Ciel darted over to closet to retrieve the case containing her silver assault rifle. "Sneak out after we've left. Penny can use her networking gear to ping your Scroll so we're easy to find."

"And vice versa!" she added. "Should you see anything, Ciel will be there in the literal blink of an eye!"

"Right. I'll give it a few minutes. Maybe an hour."

Ciel and Penny were on their way after getting equipped; like Ciel, the android wore a coat to give the impression that she cared about the winter air. The moment they got outside, however, they noticed a crowd gathering in front of dorm building three. Among them was Coco Adel and a visibly uneasy Argent Wright, plus several other upperclassmen in winterized versions of the Academy uniform. A few of Beacon's freshmen were there too, but the majority were transfers from Haven.

"Well," Ciel mumbled. "Some crowd."

"About twenty," Penny advised lowly. "Shall we proceed?"

"Let's see what the deal is first." She led the android over and met Coco first. "What's going on?"

"Rumors travel fast," she replied, examining her glossy fingernails. "Seems like the whole school's heard about his lessons." She eyeballed Penny for a moment. "Is that why you're here? I didn't think you would care. Not after the shit I saw you do."

Penny shook her head at this. "We will never pass up a chance to learn."

"Smart strategy." Pyrrha's head sticking out the window above them drew her eye next – the redhead's expression caused a smirk.

"What on Remnant is happening down there?" she called.

"That's a good question!" This was Indigo, shuffling along with her portable cannon on one shoulder – notably alone. "What's all this about?"

"We're here for the patrol," Argent replied, smoothing down her silver hair against the harsh wind.

"The-" Indigo came to a halt and stared at them – she shared another furtive glance with Coco that lasted the longest. "Wait, _all_ of you?"

"Damn right," Coco confirmed.

"Uh…" She used her Scroll to fire off a message and settled in to wait for the reply. As the moments ticked onward, a few more students joined the crowd, emerging from buildings in the complex far and near. Pyrrha stuck her head out to look occasionally, looking ever more prepared each time she did so; by the fourth such instance, her red mane was pulled back into its usual ponytail. Jaune looked out next, then almost fell back into the dorm room.

"Is it a patrol if the whole school goes?" Ciel mused out loud as more kids showed up.

Coco, one arm hugged around her stocky, silver-haired friend, shrugged her free shoulder. "Hey, strength in numbers."

"Numbers is one thing," Indigo said over her shoulder, "But at some point it gets hard to manage."

"Hey, um, you're Indigo, right?"

She looked back at Argent. "Yeah, that's me. What's up?"

"I'm…" Her face screwed up with regret. "I'm sorry about the rocket."

"The rocket-?" Indigo's eyes went wide. "That was you?"

"I swear, I had no idea the Nevermore was gonna bite it before my baby got there." She broke away from Coco as Indigo approached, half-shrunk as if expecting a reprimand or, at least, a stern look. She received neither from Indigo, only an awkward, rifle-hampered hug.

"Shit happens, man. I'm okay. So is Opher. We're all fine."

"Oh." Argent returned the patting. "Thank you, ma'am."

Coco couldn't suppress her grin. "Awwww, this is nice."

Those warm feelings only lasted a few moments more, however. "What the hell is this?!" They looked over as Opher arrived, a startled Schwarze tagging alongside him. He motioned at the crowd with both arms but said nothing else.

"You're getting popular!" Coco quipped.

Schwarze tucked her beret under a shoulder strap and blinked. "Oh my. How are we going to-"

"Holy cow! Why is everyone standing out here?" Ruby exclaimed as she and her team emerged from their building. Weiss had the honor of carrying Crescent Rose for her tonight. Pyrrha arrived a moment later with her crew.

"It is time for class!" Penny chirped. "Shall we?"

Opher, rubbing his eyes, turned around and began toward the north gate. They all fell in behind him, mumbling among themselves. "Am I getting paid for this or what?"

"Hey, you get free food. And the cafeteria ain't so bad," Indigo replied. "Better than the mess in our first unit."

Schwarze tapped her chin with a smile. "Oh dear, Stella tried so hard to cook but she never was very good at it…"

"At least you didn't learn her bad habits. So… any of her habits."

She stifled a tiny giggle. "On a more serious note… should we tell them about our potential tail? Should we even let them follow us?"

"My opinion is the same as last night. If our mystery guest shows up in the middle of nowhere to fight us _and_ the Grimm, they deserve to die. I'm planning how to split up our power players, though, just in case." He whistled and waved for Pyrrha and Ruby to join him. Before either could speak, he issued his instructions. "The four of you are gonna help me manage this crowd."

"How?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm breaking up your teams. You've got the most experience, barely. We're gonna split the new kids into smaller sections." He looked at the two soldiers next. "Three sections. One of us in charge of each. You two have night optics, I have my Aura. That should be enough detection capability. If anyone spots anything, we move on it together. Overwhelming force." Indigo's grin made him squint. "What?"

"You sound just like an LT. Except… competent."

"So, a Captain?" Schwarze quipped.

"Pretty much."

"Real cute." Opher eyed the nervous team leaders walking alongside. "If nobody dies, maybe I'll go steal Vespa's gold bar."

* * *

Yang loosed a guttural roar as she spiked a fistful of wind Dust crystals into the ground ahead of the Death Stalker charging her down; once the stones exploded, they stopped the beast's momentum just long enough for her to shotgun-punch a heavy slug into its open mouth. One muffled pop later, it crashed to the ground in a gossamer cloud of dust, losing its tail in the process. The sublimation process began shortly afterward.

"Pretty much like that," the blonde said between breaths. Behind her stood a dumbfounded Argent, rocket launcher on her shoulder, and Ruby, who had her rifle aimed in case Yang's demonstration went awry.

"How did—but I—what the hell?!" Argent finally expelled from her lips.

"It's not about how hard you hit them, but where," Ruby said. When Yang made a face, she added, "Hitting them hard also helps!"

Behind them stood Pyrrha and Penny. Their backs were turned as they faced a different threat: a small horde of mature Creeps whose armor did nothing to lower their speed. The spines of the angry lizards were coated with white chitin.

Not that this bothered Pyrrha; she didn't even have her weapons in hand as she instructed Penny, whose swords were in their ready position between her fingers. "Shoulder joint." Her eyes rolled upward in brief thought. "Yes. Can you hit that gap-"

Swords left Penny's grip, whistling through the chilly night air and snapping limbs from bodies with precision that made the redhead stare blankly. One-legged Creeps thrashed around in hateful, uneven circles until rifle shots from Pyrrha into their more-vulnerable undersides finally dispatched them.

"Like so?" she asked while fetching her weaponry from the new corpses.

Pyrrha scratched at her red hair with a smile. "I wish I had your aim."

"I know how you feel," Ciel said on her way by; she walked between both groups of girls toward an Ursa Major and its sleuth who'd lumbered through the forest, lagging behind the much-faster Creeps. "Hey, look!"

"Huh?" Ruby glanced back, turned on her heel, and put a shot into the Major's throat almost from the hip. When her bullet exploded, the beast dropped and crushed some of its smaller kin as it fell.

Penny – noting Ruby's target – whipped a few swords into the gullets of the little Ursae that were still charging forward. Their defeat left the six of them in command of the area; noises from the other fighting nearby filled the air, especially the burlap-ripping shriek of Coco's minigun and some misplaced claps of thunder.

They looked away from that symphony toward footsteps at their rear. Schwarze, the group's escort, approached with clasped hands and a big smile. "I'm sure they're fine. Does anyone need topping off?"

Scrolls came out for an Aura check, though most of them already knew the answer. A lot of head-shaking came next. Penny spoke up. "No, thank you. I am still at full capacity!"

"You're still using the other priming mechanism?" Pyrrha asked Ruby.

"Hey… it works. And I haven't seen—felt weird at all today, soooo…" She crammed her rifle child back into its fully-collapsed state as Yang gave her some unwanted pats on the head. "Nrgh!"

Indigo's voice came from the radio on Schwarze's collarbone – as well as garbled versions of the noises they were hearing from the west. "He wants us back together. Are you engaged?"

"Not anymore," she replied. "We're on our way."

They filtered through the barren trees at a leisurely pace – despite closing in on the fighting, the noise actually decreased with every step nearer they drew. By the time any of them got eyes on the others, Indigo was already leading her charges into the clearing from its other side; this included Blake and Weiss, who were together up front with a few of the uniformed upperclassmen bringing up the rear. Opher himself occupied the empty space with many of the Haven freshmen and Jaune among his group. His back was to the kids as they panted their exhaustion into the chilly night.

"I don't want to work them _too_ hard," he remarked to Indigo as she walked up. "Let's take a break."

"Then what's your excuse for us?" Yang grumbled.

"You needed the crash course."

Penny flicked the Scroll out of her wrist cuff again and eyed its screen – as promised, her gear had successfully pinged Ilia's and she knew exactly where her hidden teammate was: about a hundred meters to their west, safely tucked out of sight. That ping wasn't the only communication, however.

_Eyes on. They're here again. Same person._

The message went to Ciel as Opher began to pace in front of the collective like an officer inspecting his troops – Schwarze and Indigo even acted as his NCOs, tagging along as the three of them mumbled about strategy. Smiling, Penny watched them walk around.

"Hey, what about sector four? Coco said you gave her some kind of rock."

Opher looked over at Argent. "I don't want to chop the entire ruin down to pass out the magnetite, but…"

"If it's even safe," Yang muttered.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh my gods… all right. You know what? Get the fuck over here." His arms crossed lightly as she sauntered forward. "I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to offer you as proof, but you're starting to get on my nerves."

"Look, when an Army General tells us one thing, then you say another, who do you think we're supposed to believe?"

"Uh… what's goin' on?" Coco asked quietly.

"A bit of a disagreement about tactics, that's all," Pyrrha reassured her through a less-than-convincing smile.

At some point during their exchange, Opher and Yang ended up squaring off, though at some distance, which left his friends a bit concerned about what was next. "Ah, cutie?" Schwarze called. "Are you… I don't think we're supposed to fight the-"

"No," he said, waving a hand her way. "I want her to get it out of her system. Unload your gauntlets and let's go. Right now."

A huge grin split her lips. "Fine." She dumped the belts from her weaponry and tossed that ammo at a startled Ruby.

"Y-you can't do this!" she squealed. "I mean, you _shouldn't_ do it because it's really dumb and—oh gods this is exactly the kind of thing you would do, dang it…"

"Oh, calm down, Ruby, it'll be fine."

Nora, leaned on her hammer, commented from the edge of the crowd. "I'm with Ruby. This seems reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally dumb."

"A little sparring isn't going to hurt anyone." He cracked his knuckles for show, then cracked an even bigger smile than Yang. "Ladies first. I'm right here. And punch me like you mean it."

She sprinted forth, heels of her boots kicking up dead grass with each step, and threw a straight right at his head – which missed, but the contortions he executed to dodge that left him open for a left cross, although that punch somehow missed too. Her fists flew with reckless abandon and brief little grunts that echoed through the night, but no matter how fast she punched, he was always just millimeters away from contact, twisting his body to miss her knuckles. Yang wanted to complain, but the speed and depth of her breaths as she attacked prevented it. All he did in return was to slowly retreat and dodge her attacks, staring at her inexperience. It showed in most of her movements – the stance was too narrow, she telegraphed her intentions with torso contortions that any decent opponent would have noticed from space, _and_ she was completely tunnel-visioned on aiming at his ribs and head. When she started repeating what seemed to be her favorite, fall-back combo, he finally smacked her left hook into the right straight that he knew was coming next, forcing her fists to crash into each other with a metallic clank.

"Ow!" she snapped, shaking her hands furiously. "Damn it! Stop cheating!"

"The way you just attacked me made cheating unnecessary." He straightened his hat again and glanced up toward the broken Moon. "I take it you don't fight other people very often."

"We do non-contact sparring stuff."

Schwarze shook her head at Ruby. "That's not the same thing as fighting. Show of hands! Who here has actually _fought_ another person?" Her frown grew at the dearth of arms that went up – maybe half a dozen, among whom were Pyrrha, Penny, Coco, and Ciel. "Oh my."

"Then how the hell do they expect you to make it out here?" Indigo asked, scratching under her beret. "You don't _just_ fight the Grimm."

"They save that stuff for the upper classes," Coco explained. "Well… I guess. Argie still hasn't had hers yet."

"I have a rocket launcher, Coco, I don't do close-quarters fighting."

"They started teaching us how to kill—erm, how to defend ourselves two months into RCT!" Schwarze crossed her arms with a frown. Her next statement was mumbled down to Indigo. "Things are worse than I thought."

"Yeah…" So lost in thought was Opher that she had to smack his side lightly to bring him back. "You're awfully quiet over there."

"Any other volunteers?" he finally asked the crowd. A whole bunch of uncertain looks were exchanged between them. "Don't worry about hurting me accidentally. I'm a lot tougher than I look. Besides, you can apply these lessons to Grimm. Some of 'em, anyway."

Reluctant mumbling dominated the quiet night until, suddenly, Pyrrha broke away from her team and stepped forward, spear and shield in hand. "I'll give it a try," she said with a friendly smile.

"Uh… why?" Jaune asked.

"Well, if I learn something, I can teach all of you." She looked back to Opher. "Are there any rules?"

"No firearms. I don't want any stray bullets flying around." He watched her turn the weapon back into its rifle form, then eject the magazine and empty the chamber of its loaded round. "Why don't either of you have fancy equipment like that?" he mumbled to his soldier friends.

Indigo could only shrug. "I dunno, man."

Back to spear form again. Pyrrha stepped up to face him. "Shall we?"

"Kick his ass, Pyrrha!" Yang yelled from the edge of the crowd.

For an instant, Opher found himself in a different world – no trees, no sky, only towering cliffs of ice and wind-driven snow, but the redheaded girl with a spear transcended time and distance both. He assumed much the same fighting stance as he had against Tock; right arm against his chest, middle and index fingers extended, body slightly twisted toward her. This time, they both charged.

Her spear went harmlessly past his neck, but his fist slammed into her round hoplite shield. They retreated, then charged again; Pyrrha swung the shield this time, which Opher stopped with his forearm and drove into the top of her foot as her spear jabbed over his head. They retreated again.

"Better," Opher complimented dryly. "I appreciate you trying to kill me."

She smiled toothily. "You did say not to worry."

"I did." They came together again, his knuckles slamming so hard into her shield that sparks erupted.

A loose circle formed to watch the contest. Penny and Ciel, who purposely ended up at the rear, paid only some attention to the clash of metal and bone. Ciel's eyes were on her Scroll as messages went back and forth on Penny's secure short-range networking gear.

_Unknown sensor reading. 92 meters south-southwest. Ilia?_

_Yeah. It's them._

Ciel got a handy dot on her map from Penny's sensor suite and quietly shrugged her rifle off her shoulder. _Moving. Ten seconds._ She turned toward the forest and disappeared. After a few seconds of being unstuck from time, she dropped out of her Semblance and ended up so far from the others that she could no longer see them due to the huge old tree trunks. She didn't have much hope of seeing Ilia either – especially not if her teammate was fully cloaked. The optics on her rifle offered little information. She popped a throat microphone out of the collar of her top. "Comm check."

First to reply was Ilia, who whispered "Clear."

"Link established!" added Penny – or a highly digitized version of her voice, since she was projecting data directly into their earpieces and not actually speaking. "Proceed. Nobody has noticed that you left."

She was already on her way, stepping carefully through the fallen leaves. "Guide me in."

"Target's watching the fight. Same green-headed person I saw last time. Their back's to me."

Ciel stared down her sights, adjusting the scope to allow in as much light as possible – this didn't improve visibility much. She kept one eye on her dim Scroll and the other down her scope; to compensate for terrain and surprise tree roots, she moved at a snail's pace. "How am I approaching the target?"

"From their right side. I'm behind them. Maybe ten meters."

Metallic scraping continued to echo – Pyrrha and Opher were apparently still at it, or perhaps another opponent had stepped up by now. Agonizing moments of slow travel got Ciel through the forest in quiet order. A gap ahead in the trees, lit up by the Moon above, betrayed their target – a crouched person in dark clothing with light hair, although the darkness obscured most of the color of either. They held something up to their face – some kind of binoculars, she guessed. "Eyes on," she whispered. "When you see me appear, move in."

"Got it."

Ciel departed visible reality again for a moment, tracing a path through the trees like an unseen, gnarled finger of lightning. Her movements produced a cascade of noise, mostly leaf-based; her target looked toward it and stood, both in slow motion, as Ciel streaked by and returned to normal behind them. She saw the glint of something metal come out from their waistband – some kind of heavy revolver. "I wouldn't do that," she warned, aiming her rifle for a head shot. From here, she could make out more detail, especially their mint-colored hair.

And then they vanished.

Startled, Ciel swept her gun around, but saw nothing; Emerald stood quietly behind her, drawing both revolvers while choosing when and how to move. Before she could get her weapons aimed, however, Ilia kneed her in the back and forced her to the ground, breaking her mental hold on Ciel's eyesight.

"Get her guns!" she snapped at Ciel; Emerald, being taller and stronger, was able to work against her grip more than she liked and thrashed furiously. Ilia brandished her whip, wrapping it around Emerald's neck for more control. "Hurry!"

Ciel kicked one of the revolvers away as Emerald managed to put a foot into the ground, then get up with the other gun still in her hand – and Ilia on her back. She fired wildly twice, forcing Ciel to duck behind cover. Ilia took an elbow to the side of the head, then another, before finally releasing her and falling to the ground. While she could focus on one person, Emerald began priming and throwing wind Dust crystals in every direction to mask the noise of her retreat, fading from Ilia's sight in seconds. As the crystals exploded – and the howls of nearby Grimm attracted to the detonation rang out – she grabbed her other gun and fled into the night.

"Wh-where did…" Ilia whined, rubbing her temple. Ciel, however, was already in pursuit of her retreating silhouette. She scrambled to her feet and followed.

"She vanished," Ciel warned between breaths. "I don't know what her Semblance is, but she vanished."

"I know." Other footsteps joined theirs, whispering through the darkness. "I don't think those are people..."

"No-"

An explosion vaporized the rest of her words. Red clouds of fire erupted from glowing crystals under their feet which Ilia saw too late. The blast threw both girls to the cold ground, with Ciel losing her gun in the process. Her shattered Aura flickered sky blue even as she tumbled through the air; she eventually came to rest limply draped over a tree root, cuts drawn across her face and leaking blood. Ilia, still alert – barely – needed several seconds of groaning against the soil to find her breath, much less her faculties. Grimm were arriving to investigate as she lurched to her knees, then her feet, and almost fell over herself to snatch Ciel's rifle off the ground. Her inexperience with the weapon caused her shots to fly all over the place.

"Damn!" she snapped. She was too spindly to fire the rifle and carry Ciel at once; instead, she knelt by her knocked-out friend and focused more on keeping calm than trying to aim. Every Grimm-shaped shadow earned a burst of rifle fire – some connected, most didn't – until the magazine went dry. Ilia looked back to figure out where Ciel might keep her ammo. When she glanced up to check how close the monsters where, they were gone. "Wait… what?"

There were growls – she could hear them – but the scattered Creeps which had been stalking her panic through the undergrowth just moments before were no longer visible. Behind her and Ciel stood Emerald, silent, still as a statue, manipulating Ilia's perception so the Grimm could do her job for her.

A mumbled "Where did they go?" was confirmation of her success. She watched the beasts notice Ilia, she watched them turn, then… the crack of thunder? Some kind of immense tracer round flew through her vision, ripping a Creep into ebony chunks. More shots – the heavy _thunk_ of rifle caliber, the chipper crack of pistol rounds – then suddenly glittering Dust crystals flew through the night, exploding all around her despite not glowing. Emerald had given up on the illusion by the time Argent's rocket streaked past; now her only goal was to get away from the reinforcements.

"Ilia? What are you doing here?!" she heard Blake exclaim a few seconds after the explosion.

Emerald fell back several meters, darting between tree trunks and measuring her breaths despite all the exertion. She sneaked a look back with her binoculars; Pyrrha and Nora took up close defense of the unconscious Ciel, while Ruby – with Blake acting as her spotter – swept the forest for any remaining Grimm. Indigo came into view next, flanked by Schwarze, who was looking through some kind of spotter's scope. Assuming it had thermal vision, she quickly put a tree between it and her, then departed toward the south. A completely oblivious Yang walked right by her toward the others. Ren was just as unaware a few moments later. She saw Penny ahead, shining her Scroll light into the forest, but her back was turned – Emerald stared daggers at her and crept along, footsteps so light they barely flattened the dead leaves.

She needed a break before her Aura died and took her with it. The shallow valley below seemed like a good idea, so Emerald carefully traced a winding, glacially-slow path down the hillside. Even better, there was a stream down here; the running water would mask her footsteps. At last, she allowed herself a sigh and a moment to reflect. "That could have gone better," she breathed to herself.

No amount of brain-wracking could tell her how she'd been detected – grumbling lowly, she mopped lingering, cold sweat from her forehead and followed the little creek away from the ruckus in the distance. Thanks to the chaos – and the darkness – she realized she couldn't identify her attackers either. "Who were they?"

"Is it important?"

Emerald whirled on her heel to find Penny, ten meters away, betrayed by the green glow of her metallic irises. Swords flew as she tried to raise her guns, knocking both weapons from her hands with a shower of sparks – and breaking her left wrist in the process. Even now, grabbing at her arm with agony, she withheld the scream and wheezed out her pain instead. Fueled by terror, she cast out her Semblance toward the approaching, ever-smiling Penny. Nothing happened. Her gait didn't change. Her eye contact never broke. The comforting, inaudible hum she'd feel whenever her Aura danced with her victim's never materialized. A gaping hole showed up instead.

"Wh—why?" she gasped out, a bit of blood leaking from her nose – whether it came from the scuffle or had anything to do with this fresh horror, she couldn't tell.

Penny, still smiling cheerfully, offered her a friendly shrug. She turned to run, so Penny followed her lead – actuators and hydraulic fluid proved faster than flesh and blood in less than twenty meters of racing. The moment she caught up, she grabbed her quarry by the shoulder, turned her around, then clamped on in a bear-hug so tight it compressed Emerald's torso and prevented her from sucking in the breath to shriek. Denied air, she used her free arm to beat uselessly on her attacker.

"Stop struggling. I do not want to hurt you. Ah… any further, I suppose," Penny stated politely. Emerald's fist bounced repeatedly off of her metal skull. "Please do not hit me there."

While her mouth mimed a cascade of screams, no sound came out. Even gasps were impossible. Bloodshot eyes bulging, Emerald continued to beat Penny as the android lifted her off the ground for more leverage. Her vision faded to black, corners first, until the last things she saw were those glowing eyes.

Target subdued, Penny took a moment to check the placement of her fake locks – and more importantly, her hair bow – before dropping the unconscious Emerald next to the creek. The revolvers were picked up and hidden under her fluffy coat; while tucking them away, she scaled the hill. Once at the top, she fired off a signal to the CCT Tower which contained a set of coordinates. A bit of hand-waving and filament-trickery brought her swords home before she went back down the hill to arrange the cargo for pickup. This involved restraining Emerald's arms and ankles with metal cuffs, then picking her up and looking for a good hiding spot. The only one available was a gap in the soil beneath the root structure of a massive old tree; Penny shoved Emerald's body into it, then pressed a narrow sheet of adhesive material across her mouth to form a gag. Her last act was to search the girl for anything interesting – Scrolls, communications equipment, any sort of ID, even though Penny already knew her face thanks to Beacon's database – but found only an ID card in her pockets. It was exactly the same info the android already had.

"Strange," she mused to herself. Her work done, Penny stored her swords in their backpack under her fluffy coat and skipped happily up the hillside. Before long, she was back at the scene. Ciel had regained consciousness – Ilia helped her sit up – and before anyone even noticed her arrival, she sent a message to her teammates' earpieces via digital transmission: _Be as vague as possible._

"Unnnnh…" Ciel moaned, rubbing her head.

"Are you supposed to be out here?" a vaguely cross Schwarze asked Ilia.

"I wanted to keep tabs on Blake."

"Ilia!"

She gazed quietly at her best friend for a moment. "I don't trust what's-his-name. With the hat."

"Join the club," Yang quipped, arms folded.

"Or Weiss."

Her arms fell to her sides. "Okay, now that's uncalled for." She looked over as Penny arrived. "Hey, there you are. Anything?"

A friendly wave. "Hello! I am sorry. I was unable to find anyone."

"Shit," Indigo grumbled. "What about you two? Got a description?"

"Too dark," Ciel lied. "I didn't have much chance to ID them anyway, they shot at me."

Ilia mopped some of the blood off of her forehead and sighed. "Dark clothes… weird hair color. Couldn't see their face before the fight started. Never said anything, either, not sure if they were male or female."

"That isn't much to go on," Schwarze said. "Nor much to report to Lieutenant Vespa."

"But we are going to report it, right?" Nora asked, leaned on her hammer.

"Oh, yeah, we're gonna report it. I'm just not sure what anyone can do about it." Indigo produced her Scroll and made a call – not to her CO, however. The first words from her mouth made it clear who she was speaking to. "I told you we should have handled it last night." Her face screwed up slightly. "Everyone's fine, but Ciel's Aura is broken. We need to get her out of here."

"I will take them back to Beacon," Penny said cheerfully.

A less-than-convinced Indigo frowned, one hand on her hip. "Hold on, Opher. Can you make it all that way your own?"

"Yes she can," replied a chorus of Ruby, Yang, Blake, Nora, and Pyrrha. "Definitely yes," Ruby added a second later.

"If you say so…" Indigo turned away to continue her Scroll chat. "No, I don't know how they noticed. I'll ask. Right. Coco and Argent are already on their way back to you. Uh huh. Yeah. Bye." She shoved the device back into her pocket. "How _did_ you know we were being tailed?"

Ilia raised her hand. "Me. I saw whoever it was first. Figured Ciel and I could surround them and figure out what they were doing. They… didn't like that, as you probably noticed."

"They were willing to try and kill you. That's a pretty big problem." Pyrrha stroked her chin in thought. "How should we proceed?"

"I've already sent a basic incident report to the Lieutenant," Schwarze said, pointing at her Scroll. "As for you, Ilia… you shouldn't be here. Technically, you're interfering with a military operation. Penalties for that are rather severe."

She crossed her arms with a huff. "Even if Blake wasn't my friend, she's still the future leader of the Faunus. Her parents would want me to keep an eye on her."

"Did they put you up to this?!"

"No. They wouldn't have to."

"I wonder if dad would hire people to follow us around…"

Ruby waved frantically at Yang. "Don't give him any ideas!"

A few snickers escaped before she replied. "Yeah. Anyway, what's your problem with Weiss? We all trust her."

"Especially me," Blake confirmed, "And that should be enough." Ilia's failure to agree – or even to answer at all – caused a subtle growl. "All right, that's it. We really need to clear the air."

"Yeah!" Ruby agreed, nodding so rapidly that she got unsteady and braced against Yang for a second. "Maybe not right now, though… erm, then again… not sure if things are gonna get worse or better. Crap."

"After the past week, how much worse could they get?" Blake offered a hand up to Ilia.

"Don't ask." Indigo hefted her rifle off the ground, staring off into the woods. "I have a plan. We'll send the others back early, then find a better spot to get things off our chests. Maybe the ruins. I'll see what he thinks."

"Hold on, I'm not missing this."

Blake carefully embraced her bruised friend. "Get some sleep, Ilia, we'll catch up when I get back. I promise."

"Nrrrrgh…"

"No need to worry," Penny said. "I shall return with my team immediately."

After they'd disappeared into the darkness, those left behind shared an awkward glance before Pyrrha gave voice to their unease. "Who shoots at Academy students? Tries to kill them with Dust?"

"The same kind of people who are willing to snatch someone off a campus?" Indigo countered.

"Ah, man…" Ruby whined. "So now they're watching us too? We have enough problems!"

"Don't get too worried. It's just an idea." Schwarze waved them all onward back to Opher and the rest of their merry band. "Come on. No point risking ourselves by staying separated."

"Are we sure it's any safer around him?" Yang mumbled lowly.

Despite being meters away, Penny heard her disdain – the last part of the conversation her microphones could detect. The android easily lifted the ailing Ciel off her feet to speed things up. "Don't… you don't have to carry me," she complained weakly, hugging Penny's neck regardless.

"Nonsense. You are my mechanic. I would be non-functional without you."

"Cute." Ilia sucked in a nice, long breath of frigid Sanus air. "I assume you caught her?"

Penny smiled broadly. "Yes. She is packaged and ready for extraction."

"Uh huh. I think it's best if I don't ask how that works." Future worries began to eclipse past troubles as they trudged along. "Can't wait to see what the people in the tower say about this."

"We already have our cover story. You're Blake's best friend. You didn't trust Riese. We went with you. Easy," Ciel replied.

"No way is it gonna be that simple."

"But those things are true!" Penny insisted while adjusting her hold on Ciel's shivering frame. "Those are real feelings you had, which makes them the truth. I think."

"Exactly," Ciel agreed. "And like the Colonel says, the truth is the _best_ kind of lie."

* * *

A gentle bluish glow had already seized the western horizon by the time Blake's planned conference began. In the interests of efficiency – and not delaying their return to campus – their summit was occurring on the move. It was only them now – Coco, Argent, and the other Beacon upperclassmen were already on their way back, escorting the freshmen to safety.

"I'm not sure how to put this," she said through a terrific frown, "so I'll just say it."

"Before you say anything," Weiss interrupted, "I'm still against the _entire_ idea."

Nora was the first to counter. "Look, if it you helps you guys feel better, that helps us feel better. Then we all feel better. Right?" Ren only offered her a shrug. "It's like Ren says. The tighter you hold onto something, the more it slips through your fingers anyway." He nodded at this. "So just get on with it. We've got your back."

Weiss' continued grumbling went ignored; Blake inhaled a breath and proceeded anyway. "Velvet apparently came to Beacon from some kind of… forced labor camp." The whole group lurched to a halt in staggered fashion to stare at her with various vocal outbursts of horror.

An incensed Pyrrha capped off that anger. "A _forced_ _labor camp_?!" she snapped.

"Yes. A… a Faunus-only camp."

No vocal outbursts this time, just an invisible mire of squirming disgust, marked by hands on heads and baffled stares into space; Opher, hands shoved in his pockets, turned away from them to glare into the distance.

"And she was apparently there her whole life."

"Where?!" Ruby exploded, a squeaky tea kettle who was literally hopping mad. "When? _Why_?!"

Yang looked at Weiss for context which she was completely unwilling to give. Some silent judgment told the blonde her agony was above and beyond what everyone else seemed to be displaying. "You look sick…"

She finally broke. "A Schnee Dust Company employee had something to do with it." Their eyes all fell on her, waves of silent, confused, tension crashing into her soul. Meeting their eyes was impossible, so her boots got stared at instead. "Apparently it happened in Mistral."

Indigo suddenly shoved her tall friend. "Did you fucking know this yesterday?!" she screamed. "And you didn't _tell me_?!"

Schwarze took the hit and stumbled a few steps. "I knew the SDC part," was her quiet reply. "Not the Mistral part."

"What about you?" she snapped at Opher.

"I was the wall, Indigo, not a participant." He turned back to the group and stood between her and Schwarze to cool the former off.

Confused attention from the kids – especially Weiss – finally brought out the reason for her emotion. "My dad is an SDC executive in Mistral."

Weiss' eyes lit up. "Can you get in touch with him? I can't seem to call my mother. Miss Voss-"

"You can call me Schwarze!"

"-ahem… Miss Voss hasn't had any luck either."

"And I'm not sure I should call _my_ parents," Blake admitted. "Without knowing as much as I can. I'm worried Miss Goodwitch is right about this whole thing causing big problems."

"It… already has, hasn't it?" Weiss asked quietly.

Her feline ears went flat. "I guess so."

Indigo sat her rifle down to think. "I can talk to him, yes, but I'm not sure I _should_."

Pyrrha, annoyance rising, cut in again. "Why not?"

"It might get us in trouble." Schwarze assumed a rather dainty stance, arms crossed over her torso. "We're… um…"

"Go on," Opher urged. "You said you'd explain. Let's hear it."

"Not in front of them!" Indigo said. "It isn't their-"

"We made a deal with the Army to stay in Vale. We're technically exiles too."

Long, uncomfortable moments of silence passed. "I guess we're all in the same boat then, huh," Nora mused. She pointed her hammer at Opher. "Except you."

"You're afraid to call him because you're worried it might get you or him or your family in trouble, right?" Jaune asked. Indigo nodded confirmation. "I would be too. This sounds really bad."

"I don't even know if he knows anything," she added. "He wouldn't stand for this kind of shit, I'm sure of it."

"Which is why I wanted to call my mother. There's no way Atlas would dare exile a Schnee."

Yang's face screwed up slightly. "Are you sure?"

Ruby raised her hand for attention. "Hey, what about Schwarze's family? Would they know?"

"I…" She cast a forlorn look into the darkness. "We don't speak anymore."

"...why?"

Indigo ran a bit of interference for her quietly-suffering friend. "You asked the question yourself, Ruby. How do you think she ended up here? In uniform? It sure wasn't amicable."

"So you got the Winter treatment."

"Who?" Blake asked.

"My sister."

Yang's jaw dropped slightly. "You have a sister?"

Opher snapped his fingers to bring everyone back on track. "Enough. What do we know about this camp? For certain?"

Blake cleared her throat before answering. "It had one or two hundred Faunus. Velvet was born there. If the investigation happened in Mistral, then it must have been there, or somewhere in Anima. That's all I can guess about its location. Miss Goodwitch spoke about it like it was closed. Punishment had already been handed down."

"And we're believing that? They'll hide life-saving Dustcraft from you, future front-line soldiers, but we're just going to assume they won't do double the cover-up work on something that's actually disgusting." Opher crossed his arms with a frown. "I'm with Weiss. If we can't talk to the Voss family, and it's not a good idea to tell the Belladonnas, _and_ Indigo's worried about herself and her family if she asks questions, then Willow Schnee is our best chance to get details."

Schwarze cocked her head slightly. "But civilian network contact with Atlas is incredibly spotty right now. What do we do?"

Opher hugged her shoulder, then Indigo's, and brought them together with a grin. "What if we used military communications instead?"

"Oh, fuck no! I'm not getting in trouble with Lieutenant Vespa! If that goes up the CoC, we're seriously screwed!"

"Let me rephrase: what if _I_ used military communications?" They stared up at him. "You did say she seems to have a crush on me."

"That could work!" Weiss snapped, at last buoyed by hope.

"Man, this is really messed up. No wonder you two were so down." Yang ran fingers through her poofy blonde locks. "Maybe saying something would have been better, but… I dunno. You gotta do what the teachers say."

Pyrrha, quietly processing the whole exchange, finally rejoined it with a frown. "Are we _sure_ we're not just digging up things that are already buried?"

"The best way to know is to ask mother. I'm sure she can provide all the details we need." She gulped down the implied _I hope_ with a weird smile. "After all, she is the Chairman of the Board of Directors."

Indigo, however, still had doubts. "But if your mom and dad _don't_ know, who could have hidden it from them? Surely not my dad. In that case, we're right back where we started."

"Sienna Khan." Blake shrugged when they looked her way. "If we don't get anywhere with the Schnee family, I can try asking Miss Khan. She runs Haven. That has to count for something, right?"

"Cool! We've got a plan." Ruby abruptly lost her smile. "Does knowing about this get us in even more trouble, though? You weren't supposed to talk about it."

"How much more trouble could we be in?" Nora replied. "We already got booted. Kind of."

"There's never a ceiling for bullshit, man." Indigo shrugged away from Opher and picked up her rifle.

"At any rate, if my parents are oblivious – which I doubt – then they need this information to stop it from happening again. If they already knew, then they can close the book on it once and for all. For… for whatever that's worth now, I suppose." Weiss inhaled an icy breath – although Yang's curious gaze caught her eye. "What?"

"Seriously. You have a sister?"

"You've been a team for months and you're just finding out things _that_ basic? People call me secretive, damn."

Weiss discharged a huff at Opher. "So what? It wasn't important."

"Knowing about your teammates isn't important?"

"We know enough." Pyrrha offered him a wooden smile. "There's a fine line, isn't there?"

"Get too close and you'll be even _better_ bait for the Grimm if your friends die. Stay too far away and you'll end up dead anyway 'cause you can't fight well enough together." Indigo gazed up at the cold, distant Moon. "Hell, maintaining the proper emotional distance is part of our doctrine."

"We didn't pay much attention to that part, did we?" Schwarze teased.

That earned a laugh. "Nope."

Opher didn't find much to smirk about. "Divided unity, huh. I guess we're all our own little Kingdoms."

"Hey, whatever works," Yang said to his back as he began walking again.

Recalling his refinery adventure increased the dour scowl. "It really hasn't."

A few meters later, Schwarze cut in with some less-than-surprising news from her radio. "They want us in Beacon Tower as soon as we return. You can guess why."

"Shoot. I wanted to tell Ilia about our plan in person." Blake's face softened. "Wait. She'll probably be there too."

"Gods," Indigo whined, "I cannot wait to deal with _this_ crap for an hour before I get to go to sleep."

* * *

Festivities were already under way in Ozpin's office. The old man, cane in hand, traced wobbly circles around his workspace as he figured out how to light up Coco and Glynda. Present to watch the imminent dressing down were Ciel, still hunched slightly forward and clearly winded, Ilia, in better shape, and the fresh-as-a-daisy Penny.

"What on this planet seized you to do something so incredibly stupid?" he demanded of his Assistant Headmaster. "Xiao Long tells you, personally, that Riese believes they were being pursued, and your response was to attract _more_ students to attend last night's patrol? I cannot ask for Vespa's soldiers to do more than they are already!"

"Anyone stupid enough to try and attack him while he's surrounded by those monsters is asking to die. Besides, the more eyes are out there, the less interested any enemy should be in trying anything," she replied calmly. "If anything, it reduces their workload."

Ozpin motioned toward Penny, Ciel, and Ilia. "Explain that to them." He turned his back on Glynda to address the trio properly. "I would like to offer my personal apologies to each of you. Regardless of whether or not you should have been beyond the campus wall, I cannot fault you, Miss Amitola, for wanting to protect Miss Belladonna. Nor can I fault your team for presenting a united front."

Ilia folded her arms loosely. "That's a little hollow considering you just tried to have her exiled."

"She does have a point," Penny admitted, eyes rolled adorably in contemplation.

"Let's not discuss that matter now," Glynda warned from across the room.

"Yes. And her parents understood the risks. Then again…" He retreated to his desk and sat down. "I did not believe those risks would involve kidnappings and shootouts in our training grounds."

"New enemy, new strategy. And lest we forget, he _defeated_ that abduction attempt. That's someone worth learning from, isn't it?"

He eyeballed Glynda from his seat for a while before the elevator alert chime interrupted their silent standoff. "Yes, who's calling?"

"Sir!" chirped Ruby. "Ruby and Pyrrha and friends reporting as ordered!"

"Ah, good. I'll authorize two trips. Come on up."

Moments later, Ruby's team arrived, shuffling through the open elevator doors – Yang, brows furrowed, was focused on her Scroll. After another brief interval, Pyrrha arrived next, with Opher, Indigo, and Schwarze crammed into the car as well. They spread out across his office quietly, waiting to be addressed.

"Did _none_ of you warn the other students about the potential threat?" he asked the crowd.

Opher, arms folded and leaned against one of the great stone support columns, answered first. "And make them even more antsy than they already were? What was the point?"

"Considering that Miss Soleil and Miss Amitola could have died tonight, I don't think I share your flippancy." Ozpin clasped his hands on the desk. "And what of the dangers to Her Majesty's soldiers?"

"We told the Lieutenant yesterday morning, sir," Indigo stated. "They've known. Patrol formations have already been adjusted."

"I appreciate that, Sergeant, but there are a limited number of you and no indication of the size or nature of the threat. With the victims unable to give a description, we have _nothing_ to go on."

"Which is exactly the situation you deployed them into, isn't it?" Opher fired back. "We didn't even know she was out there, doing her own thing, by the way. She wanted to keep Blake safe. I'm not going to tell her _not_ to do that. It's like telling Yang to stop following Ruby everywhere."

"He's got a point," the blonde confirmed.

"Well, I'm putting a stop to it. It will be you nine on patrol from now on. No Coco, nor anyone else. Until we get a clearer picture of this problem, I am limiting the threat to you." He pinned Coco down with a chilly glare. "Consider this a warning. I know Miss Goodwitch came up with the plan, but you should have known better than to go along with it."

She said nothing; given her sunglasses, it was hard to tell what emotions were swirling under her blank expression.

"Am I clear?"

"Yeah, I guess," she replied at length.

"As for the rest of you, your lessons will remain among yourselves. I won't endanger the whole school with trickery I don't understand. That is all." He glanced at Yang, who quietly indicated her Scroll and the recording on it. "Later. You are all dismissed."

Emptying the office took a little longer than filling it up. Once Ozpin was alone, he tapped a button to darken the windows to their most opaque setting in preparation for the rising sun's appearance – though he dimmed the overhead lights and locked out his elevator for a different reason. A blackbird fluttered down from a tucked-away perch among the clockworks in the ceiling, then unfurled into a masked Raven.

"I'm lucky I found somewhere to hide up there without getting crushed," she complained, rubbing her neck. "So… awful early in the morning for this. I'm guessing it's not good news."

"I'm shutting down short-range access to the CCT Tower. You'll have to switch to band 95 for communications from now on."

Her red eyes got wide. "How many people were out there last night?"

"Twenty-four. Killing CCT access is the best way to handle the situation until I can warn Salem about a more… permanent fix."

"Permanent?" Raven looked out the window where the tops of some of Beacon's buildings were barely visible. "What's the cover story?"

"To subdue panic and prevent GHQ from seizing control of Beacon. I'm happy to play an old man clinging to power. I'm sure they'll withdraw the garrison, which gets them away from the sweep. It should serve as a nice test for Riese if it doesn't kill him."

"You need me for leverage in Vale?"

"Thank you, but no. Lady Duprix will require a portal home soon. Remain on standby in Mountain Glenn. Once I have both of you here, you can work the Army over together in your own ways." He suddenly cracked a smile. "Now it's time to chide your thief for being so sloppy."

"Hey, she ain't used to forests. Give her a break. And did you see that kid in the beret? She must have beaten her ass pretty good." Raven stood in position as Ozpin opened a window for her, contemplating Yang's appearance for a moment even after the way was clear. "What are you gonna do to the girl that saw her?"

"Amitola? The same thing I'm contemplating doing to the rest of the student body." He flicked a wave at his Maiden. "Assuming your mother is up for it. Now go. Catch some sun so you don't freeze."

Raven curled back up and fluttered off, freeing him to shut the window with one button tap while he checked the sensor logs for Emerald's return. A cursory scan revealed nothing. Curious, he fired off an encrypted, but still generic, message for her to come visit him in Beacon Tower, then got on with the unending busy work of his day job as Beacon's Headmaster – which snowballed into a quick Scroll chat with the commander of the Academy's little Army detachment minutes later.

"Our patrols never detected a thing, sir," Vespa assured him. "They must be interested in Riese, then. I could detach another section to trail him. See if they spot anyone."

"I have concerns about how open that might leave the rest of our perimeter," he replied.

"If you're talking about Grimm… there just aren't any, sir. I can't believe it. Even our training on the plains was more exciting than this. There's nothing for us to fight. That's why I allow the Sergeants to accompany him every night, the day patrols are easy-breezy."

"Not just the Grimm, no, but noted. I might have a word with the ALO later and ask their advice. Thank you, Lieutenant. Get some sleep." He ended the call and set his Scroll aside with a long, light sigh. Then it hit him.

Emerald, inexplicably, had yet to reply.


End file.
